The Tanaiste has indicated that the Flood and Moriarty tribunals could destabilise the Government, but expressed optimism that nothing would arise to force her out of coalition with Fianna Fail.
Ms Harney said on RTE's This Week radio programme yesterday that, while the evidence of the Flood tribunal's key witness, Mr James Gogarty, dealt mainly with the former minister Mr Ray Burke, "who is no longer a member of the Dail or the Government", she did not know what other revelation would emerge.
She said: "I am determined to stay in government for as long as we can provide effective government, or as long as trust and confidence is there. But clearly the Progressive Democrats will not stay in government at any price. That is not what the party is about." Emphasising that she trusted her ministerial colleagues, including the Taoiseach, Ms Harney said she had no reason to believe anything would emerge to damage that good faith.
Meanwhile, the inquiries she ordered under company law were already indicating "disturbing revelations" about senior people in business in Irish society.
"Some people in our society obviously felt the laws were not for them. They felt the tax system that everyone else had to adhere to was something they could bypass. They were paying, effectively, zero tax," Ms Harney added. By next summer she and the Government would take "serious action" to deal with the golden circle shown up in the reports she had commissioned.
While existing legislation precluded her from publishing the reports in the absence of permission from the companies involved, she may seek their permission. Or the possibility of appointing a High Court inspector remained, in which case the issues could enter the public domain.