Day 21 ‘bombshell’ fuels rumour mill

THE rumour was this: that Fine Gael had a ‘bombshell’ about the Taoiseach’s finances which it planned to launch at Fianna Fáil on Day 21 of the election campaign.

The rumour was given voice by clearly irate PD junior minister Tom Parlon when speaking to RTÉ television on Sunday.

Mr Parlon was speaking just a couple of hours after his party leader, Tánaiste Michael McDowell, had demanded Taoiseach Bertie Ahern make a full public statement explaining his personal finances.

Rather than deal with the mess his own party was in, Mr Parlon adopted the Fianna Fáil approach of suggesting the existence of a dirty tricks campaign against Mr Ahern.

“Fine Gael have been saying that they have a concerted campaign and on Day 21 of this election, there’s going to be a bomb exploded that’s going to blow everyone sky-high,” Mr Parlon said. “Now, if they have information, let’s have it out in the open.”

Just for good measure, he said his source for this was “one of the most senior deputies in Fine Gael”.

In fact, the source turned out to be the most senior deputy in Fine Gael — party leader Enda Kenny. But Mr Kenny scotched suggestions there was a “concerted campaign” or a “bomb”.

The Fine Gael leader explained he had met the PD spokesman in Government, Mark Costigan, last Tuesday in Leinster House, and had stopped for a chat.

During the conversation, Mr Kenny remarked it was only 21 days to D-Day, on which everything would be revealed. Mr Kenny insists it was merely a clumsy reference to polling day which was, in fact, another 23 days away at that stage. Mr Costigan, on the other hand, found the reference “a bit odd”.

The PDs thought it odder still, they say, when Mr McDowell received a phone call with a reference to “Day 21” when further information about Mr Ahern would become available.

The PDs claim this is more than a coincidence. Fianna Fáil believes that, too. Both are of the opinion that an orchestrated campaign is being waged against Mr Ahern and further revelations will be released at a time calculated to do maximum damage — in the run-up to polling day.

Mr Kenny, though, is having none of it, suggesting the PDs are simply being “paranoid”. Whatever the case, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte accurately summed the situation up yesterday when pointing out that none of this would have been an issue if the Taoiseach hadn’t accepted payments in the first place.

“Fianna Fáil are trying to circle the wagons and allege a conspiracy ... (but) there was no one around St Luke’s except Fianna Fáil people when this event happened, so there’s no point trying to hang it on the opposition.”