Fine Gael will attempt to force the Government to launch a full inquiry into the Sheedy affair when the Dail resumes in October. The party's front bench agreed yesterday to table a Dail motion seeking a judicial inquiry early in the new Dail term.
The Fine Gael deputy leader, Mrs Nora Owen, also said that Fine Gael in government would ensure all major national and international appointments by the government would be subject to scrutiny by a Dail committee.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, continued to maintain his silence on the O'Flaherty controversy yesterday as his officials continued to sound out possible contenders for the job as vice-president of the European Investment Bank. Mr McCreevy is expected to bring a name to Cabinet for approval next Wednesday. The EIB has stated it wants a candidate who is "professionally and personally" qualified.
Mr O'Flaherty withdrew his name for the position when it became clear that the EIB was preparing to tell the Government there was insufficient support for him for the job.
Mrs Owen called on the Government to accept Fine Gael's Courts Bill 2000 which would establish a mechanism whereby judges or former judges who were being considered for appointments to posts outside their normal judicial function would have to go before a hearing of a relevant Oireachtas committee.
She accused the Government of showing neither transparency nor accountability in the handling of the Sheedy affair or the fiasco of the nomination as vice-president to the EIB.
"Credibility must be restored to these fundamental principles of good government and if the Government are unprepared to do this, then Fine Gael has a duty to force them to account before the Dail and the Irish people."
The text of the Dail motion states: "In the light of the many unanswered questions surrounding the early release from prison of Philip Sheedy, the Government establish an inquiry to be chaired by a High Court or a retired High Court judge." The inquiry should have the power to compel the attendance of witnesses and to hear evidence from the former Chief Justice, Mr Liam Hamilton, the motion said.
Patrick Smyth adds:
The O'Flaherty affair has hardly registered in Denmark or Greece, which rotate the EIB vice-presidency with Ireland. Both countries say there is no pressure on Ireland to forgo its turn to make a nomination to the bank. Officials dealing with the EIB in Athens and Copenhagen insist it is a matter for the Republic to resolve.
A senior official at the Danish economics ministry said: "It would have been much better to have a nomination in place but things developed and made it not possible, but it's hardly the end of the world."