Ahern faces further payments controversy questions
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will today face further questions about payments he admitted receiving while Minister for Finance in the early 1990s.
Opposition leaders will use their first day of the new Dáil term to establish if Mr Ahern has ethical or tax obligations to address.
Mr Ahern last night revealed during an emotional TV interview that he received a total of £39,000 (€49,500) in two unpaid loans in 1993 and 1994.
He told RTÉ that 12 personal friends donated the money to help him fund the legal separation with his wife Miriam.
Tánaiste Michael McDowell said he wanted to study Mr Ahern’s interview in full before responding.
But Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte said: “The big question for Mr Ahern is how he can accept a large amount of money 13 years ago, didn’t make any repayments on it, or discharge any interest since, and say that that’s a loan. To anybody in the street, that’s a gift and should be liable for tax.”
The close-to-tears premier said during the interview that he had tried to repay the money but the donors refused to take it. He promised to reimburse the donors in full with added interest.
Opposition leaders said that it was a very grave situation for Mr Ahern, and that he had further questions to answer about the payments.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said that public confidence would be restored in Mr Ahern after his detailed interview.
“It was an extraordinarily difficult time for him, and I think anybody watching that could empathise with him and understand,” she said.
“As a result of this interview I believe that there is absolute ongoing confidence in the honesty and the integrity of the Taoiseach and in the way he has handled this."
The cash payments controversy was triggered by a newspaper report last Thursday that claimed that the Mahon Tribunal was investigating sums of money totalling up to €100,000 given to Mr Ahern in 1993. The information was leaked from confidential meetings that Mr Ahern had with the State enquiry, which is investigating planning irregularities in Dublin in the 1990’s.
“It had nothing to do with the tribunal,” said Mr Ahern. “It had nothing to do with planning, building, zoning or anything else.
“It was done to damage me. I suppose those people who set out in a calculated way to do that, whoever they were, probably have succeeded to some extent.”
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