The Taoiseach has admitted he was lobbied in advance of choosing his new Cabinet last week.
"There was an enormous amount of lobbying, as always. There were lobbies from farm groups, from other groups, and, you know, not only from colleagues, from individuals about all kinds of people and all kinds of issues," Mr Ahern said yesterday.
"But that is the normal run-of-the-mill. It is from the organisation as well. Naturally, every part of the organisation, and particularly those who have done well, want to see their man and woman in the Cabinet.
"But I did not change much from where I wanted to go. In terms of changes, there are five or six new ministers, about eight departmental changes. That is a lot, and about as much as you can take on in one go. It is substantial change."
According to a report in yesterday's Sunday Independent, the businessman Mr Dermot Desmond was among those who lobbied Mr Ahern to retain the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh. A spokeswoman for Mr Desmond was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Asked about the criteria he had used in appointing his ministers, the Taoiseach said: "I was looking very much to the future, looking to how we can build as a Government on the issues which are important ... I also looked for performance, for a high work ethic ..."
He would review matters in two years and hold to his position of making further Cabinet changes, he added. "I have now a younger parliamentary party ... ambitious and prepared to work hard and I want to incrementally make those changes.
Mr Ahern denied reports he had told the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, that she could either be Tánaiste or Minister for Transport but not both. He added that he would have no difficulty working with the new Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
Mr Ahern, in an interview in the RTÉ Radio's This Week, repeated he intended the Government to run for a full five-year term. "The Government is committed, over the next five years, to achieving what it has set out in its agreed programme."
He said he had no doubt the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, would vote for the Nice Treaty in the next referendum. He said that whatever concerns Mr Ó Cuív had, when he voted against Nice as a junior minister, had been addressed.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern has to nominate a Fianna Fáil deputy leader to replace Ms Mary O'Rourke, who was recently appointed to the Seanad and is expected to be appointed Cathaoirleach when the new upper house is elected next month.
Mr Ahern said yesterday he had somebody in mind but had not spoken to that person. There is speculation that the post might go to the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, who is viewed as his most loyal lieutenant within the Cabinet. An alternative choice could be the Clare TD Ms Síle de Valera, who was dropped from the Cabinet by Mr Ahern but is expected to be appointed a junior minister. Ms de Valera has been a chairperson at Fianna Fáil ardfheiseanna in recent years.
The Taoiseach will also be nominating a new chairman of the parliamentary party to replace Dr Rory O'Hanlon, who was appointed Ceann Comhairle last week. That post could go to the long-serving Louth deputy Mr Seamus Kirk, a former junior minister.
