Bertiegate - Could Ahern Call A Snap Election?

Bertie Ahern has now admitted to receiving “gifts” of €50,000 in the early 1990s. It remains now to be seen if the group of people named by Ahern and described by him as his personal friends, benefitted in any way as a result of giving Ahern money. What we do know is that Ahern did say that if any of them did benefit, it was out of friendship and not because they gifted him money. By saying this, Ahern is not denying that some of the might have benefitted, but that the motive behind their benefaction—if indeed, any of them have benefitted—is not what it might appear to be in light of these financial gifts.

Simon at Irish Election has done some initial work in assessing who these people are. One of them, it would seem, is Joe Burke, who has experience in controversy. A former Fianna Fáil councillor, he was appointed as chairman of the Dublin Port Company in 2002. Burke’s appointment was among a number of postings to State bodies announced the day after the calling of the 2002 General Election, which led to allegations of cronyism from Fine Gael and Labour. Apparently, Mr Burke had requested a place on the board of Dublin Port from the Taoiseach and that the partners in Government, the Progressive Democrats had not been consulted in advance about his appointment. The then Tánaiste, Mary Harney, was only notified after the appointment was made.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse. Mr Burke became embroiled in the Sheedy controversy in 1999. This episode caused a huge scandal at the time when it emerged that, as the employer of the jailed architect Philip Sheedy, he visited him in prison at Shelton Abbey after his conviction and sentencing for dangerous driving causing the death of Mrs Anne Ryan. At the time, Mr Ahern told the Dáil that Mr Burke had made representations to him about securing Mr Sheedy’s early release. He described the former councillor as a “good personal friend… When I meet him we usually talk about sport, sometimes about building and politics”.

So, there it is.

Fianna Fáil have been slumping in the polls for most—if not all—of the year and I would imagine it’s probably not going to get any better for them. If this Joe Burke is the same Joe Burke above, and the whole thing gets worse, Bertie might simply walk into the Dáil tomorrow, the first day of the final session of this, the 29th Dáil, and call a snap election—a sure fire way to kill this disgraceful scandal off, because for all political parties, the energy involved in running a General Election campaign, would be all-consuming.

It remains to be seen what will happen.