No record of the appointment diaries of three former Taoisigh, Mr Jack Lynch, Mr Charles Haughey and Dr Garret FitzGerald, have been retained in the Department of the Taoiseach, the Dail was told by the Taoiseach.

But Mr Ahern added that copies of the diaries of two other former Taoisigh, Mr John Bruton and Mr Albert Reynolds, were held in a registry. He said that, on leaving office, more recently serving Taoisigh were, in some cases, given a copy of their diary, usually in hard copy form, for record purposes.

The Taoiseach was asked if he had formed a view, in the light of the controversy regarding ministerial appointments, that it would be desirable that the diaries of Mr Haughey and Dr FitzGerald should be made available to the Department of the Taoiseach and put into the archives.

Mr Ahern said no rules applied in the matter. The Cabinet procedure made reference to the retention of papers by ministers and ministers of State.

Under the Official Secrets Act, former ministers may retain official documents.

"Obviously, former Taoisigh held on to their diaries in the past. I suppose, even where there was a copy of the record, the electronic record was wiped clean." He said that records of the diaries of the Taoiseach and ministers would be retained in future under the Information Act.

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn asked: "In the light of what has happened, and the difficulties which may transpire for yourself and your colleagues in this Coalition Government, would you consider making a formal request to former deputies FitzGerald and Haughey to return to the Department of the Taoiseach the diaries which are essentially matters of public record?"

Mr Ahern said that, to the best of his knowledge, the two former Taoisigh always responded to any query which came through the Government Secretariat.

Mr Quinn referred to the query put by the Department of the Taoiseach, through, he understood, Dr Martin Mansergh, to Mr Haughey about an alleged meeting with Mr Tom Gilmartin. "Given the fact that Mr Haughey lied to the McCracken tribunal, what guarantee do we have that he told Martin Mansergh the truth?"

Mr Ahern replied: "I believe he did."

Earlier, Mr Ahern revealed that when he was a minister he never bothered to keep a personal diary of appointments. "I left it to the civil servants to keep one diary, and when I left the departments those diaries were around. I suppose if I had been wiser I would have done what others did and taken them with me, and then I would have been able to check them on a Sunday night. Not that you get much thanks for checking them on Monday morning."