There was "no delay" in setting up a tribunal of inquiry into Garda activities in the Donegal division, the Taoiseach told the Dáil today.
Mr Ahern was responding to harsh criticism from Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte that John O'Donoghue, as minister for justice, and Michael McDowell, as Attorney General "contrived to do nothing" on the issue in 2001.
"As I have said a number of times, there was no delay, there was no holding back," Mr Ahern said during tense exchanges on the last day of the Dáil session.
"The [criminal] cases were being proceeded ... the minister for justice had not got the invesigation file, the Attorney General when, he was asked for his advice, did say that a tribunal would be best but you couldn't have it in public when you had cases pending," Mr Ahern added.
Mr Rabbitte said that in August 2000 the Acting Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy sent a secret report, based on the investigation carried out by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, to the minister for justice at the time John O'Donogue.
"It was a shocking 37-page summary of what Assistant Commissioner Carty had uncovered in Donegal," Mr Rabbite said. "And what did Minister O'Donoghue do about it? Absolutely nothing.
"In November of 2001 he voted down on the advice of the Attorney General [Mr McDowell] a motion from the Labour Party, the Fine Gael party, and the Green Party for an inquiry into these affairs.
"Minister McDowell came in last week and said 'if only we had known the facts earlier we would have acted earlier' and he then went on to accuse me, when I told him what was in the Conroy report, that I was bluffing, I hadn't read it, hadn't seen it.
From shouts of "you're shameless, you're shameless" from Mr McDowell on the Government benches, Mr Rabbitte added, holding up a copy of the report: "Well this is the Conroy report".
"Every time I raise this issue, Minister McDowell scurries up the back stairs to brief the media and muddy the waters," Mr Rabbitte added.
"Well I hope when you scurry up today that you'll bring this with you and you'll give them a copy of it because, contrary to what you tried to suggest yesterday, I have indeed seen the report and it would cause the hair on any reasonable person's back of the neck to stand up and to think that you and Minister O'Donoghue contrived to do nothing on it is reprehensible."
Mr Ahern responded: "The fact is that the full Carty report was given to the Department [of Justice] in late January of 2002.
"In February 2002 the Government approved in principle a tribunal of inquiry".
He said the Government went about setting up the tribunal "just a few days after the full Carty report was given".
"I do not know why Deputy Rabbitte persists on this, because all the records are there, the dates are there, and the information is there," the Taoiseach added.
