The two main Opposition leaders have demanded the resignation of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in an extraordinary two-pronged attack on the credibility of his evidence to the planning tribunal.
During the weekend, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and his Labour Party counterpart Eamon Gilmore separately called on Mr Ahern to step down over what Mr Kenny claimed were accounts of his personal finances that demeaned the profession of politics.
Mr Kenny issued a 1,500-word statement on Saturday in which he made his most excoriating personal criticism of Mr Ahern since he became leader of Fine Gael in 2002.
In unremittingly harsh and personalised language, Mr Kenny said that Mr Ahern's evidence to the tribunal would erode the authority of the office of Taoiseach if it continued in the same vein as his previous appearances. "It is not acceptable to have a Taoiseach who cannot declare compliance with the tax codes, who cannot explain €300,000 worth of lodgements to his accounts and who has clearly misled the public and the Dáil over his inexplicable finances," he said.
Yesterday Mr Gilmore strongly backed up Mr Kenny's calls by renewing his own calls from last September for Mr Ahern to step down. He told RTÉ Radio's This Week programme: "If anything, the situation has got worse [since September 2007]. We have about four different versions of the story of the Taoiseach's personal finances. We now know the Revenue Commissioners have an issue with it. We now know that he's not able to get a tax clearance certificate."
Both Mr Kenny and Mr Gilmore also widened their attacks to apply political pressure on those surrounding Mr Ahern, including Tánaiste Brian Cowen; other Fianna Fáil Ministers; and junior Coalition parties, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats.
The scathing nature of Mr Kenny's remarks prompted the Government parties to respond quickly and robustly. In a terse statement, Mr Cowen said he was not surprised at the vitriolic nature of the comments. "Personal attacks are becoming Mr Kenny's stock in trade. I reject them as the electorate rejected him last year," he said. Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan also accused the Fine Gael leader of editing the tribunal evidence to suit his own purposes.
The Greens also brushed aside criticism from Mr Gilmore that Fianna Fáil was running rings around them in Government. "We feel Mr Gilmore's remarks may reflect his own and his party's ongoing frustration at the outcome of the election," their spokesman said.
Mr Ahern, on the first day of a six-day trip to South Africa and Tanzania, refused to respond to the attacks. The Government press secretary made it clear on behalf of Mr Ahern that, in a departure from precedent, he would not deal with questions about domestic political events or comments made by Mr Kenny or Mr Gilmore.
In his statement on Saturday, Mr Kenny honed in for the first time on the responsibilities of the Tánaiste. He said that if Mr Cowen did not force the Taoiseach to resign, he would be perceived as "an accomplice". He also portrayed the Green Party and the PDs as impotent.
Mr Gilmore argued that the sense of loyalty towards Mr Ahern within the parliamentary party was entirely pragmatic: "When Mr Ahern's own colleagues in Fianna Fáil feel he is a liability to the party, they will move to shaft him, just as Fianna Fáil moved to shaft Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey and Jack Lynch before him," he claimed.
Both parties last night insisted that the renewed attacks on the Taoiseach had not been co-ordinated despite the similar thrust of the criticisms. However, Fine Gael did say that Mr Kenny had been due to issue his statement on Sunday but had moved it forward a day to accommodate Mr Gilmore's appearance on This Week. A Labour spokesman said Mr Gilmore was unaware of the contents of Mr Kenny's statement until it was made.
The timing of Mr Kenny's attack - and the lack of an event to trigger it - was the subject of much speculation. Party sources said that Mr Kenny had an opportunity over Christmas to analyse in detail Mr Ahern's evidence and this represented his first in-depth response.
Others pointed to the fact that with Mr Ahern travelling abroad, it gave Mr Kenny an opening to seize the domestic political initiative and dominate the news agenda ahead of the Dáil returning at the end of January and the first major opinion polls of the year.
