File controversy:Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds has revived the controversy over why Bertie Ahern had failed to pass over a crucial document to him during the Dáil debate that led to the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour government in November 1994. Stephen Collins, Political Editor, reports.
Interviewed on NewsTalk radio's lunchtime programme yesterday, Mr Reynolds maintained that the truth was never told about the manner in which he lost office and was replaced as leader of Fianna Fáil by Mr Ahern.
Mr Reynolds recalled how he had not given the Dáil information about an important precedent, called the Duggan case, during the controversy over why an extradition request for paedophile priest Brendan Smyth had not been proceeded with.
"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.
"Because it was too late to come into the Dáil . . . or to give it to me before I came into the Dáil, it was sent in by my office. It came up to where I was standing up and answering a question at the time. And it was never given to me."
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." When interviewer Éamon Keane asked him why he thought Mr Ahern didn't tell him: "I don't know . . . [ long pause] I couldn't tell you."
The story of the crucial documents that were not passed over to Mr Reynolds received considerable attention at the time. Mr Ahern gave a detailed explanation of the sequence of events in January 1995 to the special Oireachtas committee that examined the circumstances in which the Government fell.
A lot hinged on why crucial advice from the then attorney general Eoghan Fitzsimons and possible responses to questions were not passed on to the taoiseach in the course of a critical debate.
Labour leader Dick Spring pulled out of office because Mr Reynolds failed to mention the Duggan case referred to in the documents.
In his evidence to the Oireachtas committee on January 11th, 1995, Mr Ahern recalled that the file containing the documents was given to him as he automatically sat beside the taoiseach during Dáil debates.
Mr Ahern strongly disagreed with the evidence given by Mr Fitzsimons who said he had shown the crucial letter to the then minister for finance just before the critical debate. "I must disagree with him on this point and I believe his recollection is completely inaccurate.
"It was my function to hand the appropriate replies to the taoiseach as questions were raised in the Dáil but it was not my function to read or analyse them in any detail," Mr Ahern said.
Last night a Fianna Fáil spokesman said the Taoiseach was not making any comment as it had all been played out many years ago.