Former CI╔ chairman, Mr Brian Joyce and the Minister for Public Enterprise have clashed at the rail signalling inquiry, over the reasons for Mr Joyce's shock resignation last year.
Mr Joyce said the immediate cause of his decision to resign on March 6th, 2000 were media reports about him which he said were based on leaked information.
He said the reports could only have been based on a letter he sent to the Minister, Ms O'Rourke, and he believed the leaks came from her or someone close to her.
In particular, there was a report carried in The Irish Times on Friday, March 3rd, which carried speculation about his views on the Luas light rail project for Dublin.
He said he had never discussed his thoughts on the issue in any public arena and, although he had no evidence to support his theory, was of the opinion the information had been leaked.
"On the Friday before I resigned I said: Do I need this? My answer was: I do not," he told the inquiry.
Ms O'Rourke, however, said she took "very great exception" to the allegation.
She said the article to which Mr Joyce referred was based on documents released to The Irish Times journalist, Frank McDonald, under a Freedom of Information request.
Mr McDonald had written to her department in January 2000 seeking all correspondence between herself and Mr Joyce in relation to the Luas over the years 1996-1999.
Some weeks later Mr McDonald was sent 36 items of correspondence and two articles published in the The Irish Times, in February and March, were based on those items.
"The letter was not leaked. It was quite properly and legally obtained under the Freedom of Information Act," said Ms O'Rourke.
"I take the matter very seriously because the Freedom of Information is a legal instrument . . . Anybody who seeks to get information is fully entitled to get the information and any articles they write based on it, they are quite entitled to write." Ms O'Rourke told the inquiry last week that Mr Joyce's decision to quit CI╔ was the biggest shock of her political career.
At the time of his resignation, Ms O'Rourke said she had a meeting scheduled with him for March 7th, but while taking a bath that morning, she heard on the news that he had resigned.
Mr Joyce indicated yesterday, however, that there were under-lying tensions between himself and the Minister, primarily because he believed CI╔ needed more control over its own affairs.
The company was expected to pay wage increases under national partnership agreements but its annual budget was being cut and it had no power to adjust fares. The Minister had thought it "ridiculous" when he indicated he might not be able to pay the increases, he said.
"Even though it's a public state company, the discretion to run the business should be within the business, not outside because if it's outside, you give everybody inside an excuse why trains are late or why there is no rolling stock or why there's this problem or that problem." Mr Joyce said the existing situation allowed for "too many hiding places for people to run to." Mr Joyce and the Minister were being cross-examined in the closing days of the inquiry.