Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds has intervened in the election campaign by recalling Bertie Ahern's failure to give him a crucial report during the Dáil debate that led to the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour Government in November, 1994, writes Stephen Collins, Political Editor.
Mr Reynolds said yesterday on Newstalk radio station that he had not given the Dáil crucial information because documents were not passed on to him by Mr Ahern.
"I didn't know about it until I was gone three or four days or a week that the report that Dick Spring had thought I had got, and others thought I had got, I hadn't got it."
Asked what happened, Mr Reynolds said: "Bertie had it at that time, yeah. So I never got it and it was even put in the papers that I told lies about it. I never told lies about it because I hadn't got the report."
Asked why Mr Ahern didn't give him the report, he said: "I don't know. I couldn't tell you."
A Fianna Fáil spokesman said last night the Taoiseach was not making any comment on the matter as the whole thing had been played out many years ago.
Also yesterday Esther Uzell, the sister of murdered Dubliner Joseph Rafferty, said she was contesting the Dublin South East constituency to alert the electorate to the dangers of voting for Sinn Féin candidate Daithí Doolan.
Mr Rafferty was shot dead outside his apartment in west Dublin in April 2005.
Ms Uzell, who was supported yesterday by the sisters of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney, claims the murder was carried out by an IRA member and that Sinn Féin is protecting his identity. Sinn Féin denies any republican involvement in the murder or in any attempt at a cover-up.
There is good news for Fine Gael in an opinion poll in today's Farmers Journal which shows the main Opposition party has taken a nine-point lead among farmers.
The poll carried out by Behaviour and Attitudes over the May bank holiday shows Fine Gael on 49 per cent (up 10 percentage points) since the last Farmers Journal poll in March, while Fianna Fáil is on 36 per cent (up 1 point).
The telephone poll of a representative sample of 500 farmers also shows that 60 per cent expect the impact of the coverage of the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's personal finances will reduce the chances of the Fianna Fáil/PD coalition being returned to power.
Farmers also say that Fine Gael is outperforming Fianna Fáil in presentation, canvassing and organisation, and they give Enda Kenny a higher satisfaction rating than Bertie Ahern.