GREENS' REACTION:GREEN PARTY sources were unwilling to point the finger last night at their Coalition partners in Fianna Fáil as the source of the leaked correspondence which led to the resignation of Trevor Sargent as Minister of State.
“I don’t have any information,” one of the party’s leading figures said, while another party source suggested the leak may have come from outside the political system.
Interviewed on RTÉ television's Six One News, Deputy Sargent himself was asked why the letter had emerged now, and he replied: "Well, I really can't answer that. I may wonder myself I suppose, but it can only be conjecture.
“The offence is a long time back now and the letter has come out, presumably somebody got hold of it, I don’t know how they got hold of it, but it was written to the Gardaí, and after that maybe somebody else saw it. I don’t know. ”
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he had no knowledge of the letters written by Mr Sargent until the story broke yesterday.
“Absolutely not, until one o’clock when I came out of the Cabinet, to turn on the one o’clock news, and that’s the first I heard about it. And I have to say I am really hurt and surprised that anyone would suggest that I had anything, hand, act or part to do with this.
“Trevor Sargent is a personal friend, and I have always had friendly relationships with him, so I have to say I am really hurt that anyone would suggest [otherwise].
"I checked with the secretary general of my department in the last couple of minutes to see was there any correspondence in the department or any notification in the department, and he confirmed to me that the first he heard about it was when he got a phone call from the Garda Commissioner this morning, who was ringing him to tip him off on the basis of a press query that had come in from the Evening Herald."
Meanwhile, Green Party Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan was asked by Newstalk presenter George Hook if he supported a national government.
“Yes, I think we do need to pull together a bit to pull through this crisis, and I think particularly next month because there’s going to be difficult decisions in front of us.”