Political reaction: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's Mahon tribunal evidence shows that he did not "fully or freely co- operate" with its investigations, Fine Gael charged last night. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
Responding to Mr Ahern's second day in the witness box, a Fine Gael spokesman said: "We know now that he has been stone-walling the tribunal about foreign exchange transactions."
Mr Ahern's version of events surrounding his bank accounts "is changing" as extra information has been found by the tribunal.
"The Taoiseach's credibility has been undermined. It isn't any more about what he did or did not do back then, but the different versions that we are getting as facts emerge from the tribunal. This has been a slow grind."
Earlier this week, Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, heightened the pressure on Mr Ahern by insisting that the Taoiseach had to deal fully with all of the outstanding issues.
However, he has not spoken publicly about Mr Ahern's testimony since the Taoiseach entered the witness box, and he appears intent on not doing so until Mr Ahern has finished.
The Labour Party said Mr Ahern had "done little to reassure those who have concerns about his unorthodox financial arrangements".
It is now clear, said a spokesman, that the tribunal had not received the kind of co-operation it could have expected from the head of the government that had established it.
"He has again shifted his ground on a number of significant issues, but that has been a pattern of the way in which he has dealt with this issue from the beginning," he said.
However, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said: "I don't think it is fair to suggest that the Taoiseach was responsible for any delays. Some of this stuff is painstaking because you are dealing with things that happened 13 years ago, but, nonetheless, what is under-appreciated is the degree to which someone has had to go back 13 years when the rules were completely different."
Some of the correspondence between Mahon and Mr Ahern's lawyers was explainable because Mr Ahern had believed that information about the purchase of his house and other matters were "completely personal to him" and were not relevant to the tribunal's inquiries into planning corruption allegations made by developer Tom Gilmartin, said Mr Martin.
Defending Mr Ahern, Mr Martin said: "I am looking at the bigger picture. I am looking at a man who I have worked with for over 10 years at the Cabinet table who has never in my view made any decision that was not in the public interest, that was not with the common good in mind. I have never seen him take any decision in favour of any company, or in favour of any person."