The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, has declined to make a judgment on the Taoiseach's evidence to the planning tribunal.
The Green Party TD said the inquiry should be allowed to do its work and make an assessment on the Taoiseach's evidence in due course. Any judgment now would amount to an interference in its work.
The Green Party's main priority was to deliver on its policies in Government, he said. Central to that was the need for proper planning and that meant supporting the tribunal process.
Asked if he would like to see the tribunal prioritise its report on Mr Ahern, Mr Ryan said it was up to the tribunal judges to set their own priorities and decide on a programme of work.
He said it was difficult for him to make a judgment on a process when he hadn't been following it from the very start. While everyone would like to see the tribunal process speeded up, this was not as easy as some would like.
Trevor Sargent, Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, said it was bizarre that Labour and Fine Gael "had suddenly found tongue and courage whereas before the election they were afraid to say boo".
The former Green Party leader said: "It's so opportunistic now that they've decided to have a go at the Taoiseach. I'd just like to ask where they were before the election, when people needed their public representatives. They weren't raising questions on that point," he said.
"I'm trusting the tribunal - with all the legal rigour and research muscle it has - to investigate this issue far more comprehensively than I could ever. The tribunal will comb through all of the evidence before it."