The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday vehemently denied there had been a conflict of interest in accepting the use of a villa in the south of France owned by Mr Ulick McEvaddy as part of her summer holiday.
In her first public response on the controversy, Ms Harney said she has been a friend of Mr McEvaddy for several years, before she became a minister, and said the guidelines that referred to ministers in the Ethics in Public Office legislation specifically did not include friends or family.
The Tanaiste said she had for the past 11 or 12 years gone on holiday with the same group of friends. One of the friends organised the holiday this year, and it was decided to go to the south of France. "We made our bookings in the normal way some months ago . . . at the time of the local elections. The McEvaddys are friends of mine. They are also friends of my friend that was organising the holiday. They made the accommodation available for part of our holiday because they were not using it."
In relation to criticism of her use of the villa by the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, Ms Harney said: "For example, nobody suggested when Ruairi Quinn was minister for finance that he should not be involved in any decisions relating to the banks because his brother was chairman of the biggest bank in the country or because his family were involved in the supermarket business or the electrical business."
The Tanaiste said that by virtue of being a minister one was not expected to abandon family or friends. "I have been a friend of the McEvaddys long before I became a Minister. If a matter arises before the Government and it involves a friend and that has already happened in relation to this Government, a matter did come before the Government that involved a friend of mine. I made it clear to my Government colleagues at the time that this person was a friend of mine and that's what I would have done in any occasion where a friend of mine is involved.
"This is a small country. We mix. I mix with people in business. I have friends in business. I have friends in the media. I accept their hospitality. I return hospitality."
Ms Harney said she was not in politics to bestow favours on friends or family. "Over the last two years gifts have been offered to me by corporations. They have exceeded £500 and I have declined them. In areas where there has been doubt about one gift I received I referred the matter to the secretary-general to the Government. I know what the duties of public office are. I take them seriously. I do not believe it is a requirement to abandon my friends and if it were I wouldn't be in politics and I don't think there would be many other people in politics." She said Ireland was a small country, and politicians who had friends in the media, in business and in other professions were more rounded and had a wider perspective than those who stayed away from people.
"Mr Quinn has family members in business. Nobody has questioned his integrity while he was a minister or that of his family and I don't believe my integrity should be questioned and I should not be expected to exclude myself on important matters of Government policy. I have campaigned for Baldonnel airport for a long time and not in Mr McEvaddy's interests, actually."
Last night Mr Quinn said Ms Harney was correct in saying that declarations need not be made in respect of gifts or services from personal friends or relatives under the Ethics in Public Office Act. However, he said, the only exception was where a gift from a friend or relative might give rise to a perception of conflict of interest.
The Fine Gael public enterprise spokesman, Mr Ivan Yates, said Ms Harney's defence was wholly inadequate and unsatisfactory.
"It is just not good enough for Ms Harney to argue that a self-defined personal friendship was sufficient grounds for her to deem herself exempt from the onerous provisions of the Cabinet Handbook."
Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said the fact that Ms Harney and Mr McCreevy and Ms Nora Owen and Ms Bernie Malone had happily accepted an invitation to "place their snouts in the feeding trough of a multi-millionaire advocate of privatisation and deregulation is stunning proof that the golden circle continues to thrive."