In a further escalation of his attacks on the Taoiseach over his personal finances, Opposition leader Enda Kenny has challenged the Cabinet to have the courage to "speak out" and withdraw support for Mr Ahern instead of sitting down with him in Government "in the knowledge that he is not tax-compliant".
The Fine Gael leader said it was not a matter for himself to ensure the Taoiseach left office: "It is a matter for those around the Cabinet table to withdraw support if that's what they want to do; if they have the courage to speak out here."
Repeating his call for the Taoiseach's removal from office, Mr Kenny said: "It would be to the benefit of Irish politics. I think it would be to the benefit of a Cabinet allowed to focus 100 per cent on the problems which face the nation."
Explaining why Fine Gael had made a formal complaint about Mr Ahern at the weekend to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), Mr Kenny said: "Hundreds of thousands of self-employed people - carpenters, plasterers, blocklayers, taxi-men, all of these people - have to comply now with tax regulations and here we've got a situation where 14 other Ministers sit down with the head of Government in the knowledge that he is not tax-compliant."
In response to Mr Kenny's interview on RTÉ's This Week, a Government spokesman said: "We were surprised that the leader of the Opposition didn't take the opportunity to outline any policies but concentrated instead on a range of negative sentiments which ran against the democratic decision taken last May by the Irish electorate."
Following a decision by the Fine Gael front bench last week, the party's Seanad spokesman on justice, Senator Eugene Regan made a formal complaint in writing to Sipo chairman Mr Justice Matthew Smith.
In the light of the Taoiseach's admission that he cannot at present obtain a tax-clearance certificate from the Revenue Commissioners as a member of the current Dáil, Senator Regan is urging Sipo to carry out a review of Mr Ahern's claim to have been tax-compliant at the time of the election of the previous Dáil in 2002.
Senator Regan asked Mr Justice Smith to consider his letter "a formal complaint against Deputy Bertie Ahern in relation to the basis and circumstances in which he provided the Standards Commission with evidence of tax compliance (including declarations to that effect) following his election to the 29th Dail in 2002".
A Government spokesman said: "If Sipo is to forward any queries to the Taoiseach, he will certainly fully co-operate." The spokesman pointed out that "previous allegations were found to be unsubstantiated".
The spokesman could neither confirm nor deny a Sunday Tribune report that a controversial £5,000 cheque, which formed the basis for lodgments to two of Mr Ahern's accounts with Irish Permanent in January 1994, was a gift from his mother, Julia Ahern, who died in 1998.
