Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

With Fiona O’Malley and now Mary Harney coming out questioning Bertie Ahern handling of his affairs.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to break his silence over evidence given at the Mahon tribunal last week.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin this morning, the  former Progressive Democrats leader said the Taoiseach was the [...]

Bertie Ahern’s brother Noel Ahern –
Fifteen thousand is no big deal. There might be a very simple explanation. I understand he may have given the wrong details for a wrong lodgement … There’s nothing special about the amount…
He’s referring to the £15,500 Sterling.   In early 1994, a punt bought about 96p Sterling so that’s [...]

The Irish Independent revealed today that the Taoiseach will tell the Mahon tribunal that he converted his salary cheques into sterling, and then back into punts, before lodging them into the three accounts he kept at the Permanent TSB branch in Drumcondra. This is in response to Grainne Carruth’s devastating evidence to the Mahon [...]

Junior Minister John McGuinness gave an interview on Newstalk’s Lunchtime Show regarding this week’s proceedings at the Mahon Tribunal this afternoon - Newstalk have press released the interview with quotes after the jump. The overall tone of the interview was less than convincing in it’s endorsement of the Taoiseach.

From RTE
The Taoiseach’s former secretary, Grainne Carruth, broke down at the Mahon Tribunal today after saying she now accepts she lodged sterling on his behalf.
But when Ms Carruth insisted she did not remember making the lodgements for Bertie Ahern she was warned that it is a criminal offence to lie to the tribunal.
The Mahon Tribunal [...]

As Bertie works his way back Washington, yet another interesting development at Mahon.   It seems that the relevant manager of Bertie’s accounts at the Irish Permanent is a bit less reticent than his counterparts at the AIB, who were nearly as effective at the strategic memory loss as Bertie himself.   The man from the Irish [...]

At the Saint Patrick’s Day reception –
President, as we say good-bye on this occasion, but hopefully we’ll keep in touch over the years, I will remember — and I hope that everyone in Ireland will — how kind, how favorable you’ve been, how really open you’ve been to helping us, and the amount of time [...]

The Sunday Business Post had another of its regular polls in this Sunday’s edition, which highlighted some interesting changes in public opinion.
One intriguing outcome of the poll that the amount of people who trust Bertie Ahern has fallen, while the amount of people who support Fianna Fáil has risen.
Critically, however, the number of people who [...]

During a discussion back in 2002, John Gormley certainly didn’t hold any punches when it came to a sum of £30k and a Taoiseach who misled the Dail. Ah, how times change. I guess Gormley would now say “That was then and this is now.”

Tánaiste accuses FG of witch-hunt

Am I right in thinking that there are two distinct ‘party lines’ emerging as Ahern continues to get hauled through the Mahon Tribunal?
The first is the all-out defence of Martin Mansergh et. al. refusing to even countenance any possible wrongdoing by Ahern and willing to defend to the hilt Ahern no matter what evidence emerges [...]

Says Cllr Maurice Ahern - brother of Bertie - of the Sunday Tribune front page story which suggests he has been critical of Dublin Central Fianna Fail’s accounting practices in the past, adding weight to concerns raised on Friday;
“The story states that I was critical of financial accountability in Dublin Central Fianna Fail.
This is [...]

Judge Mahon.  What sounds like an incredible day at the Tribunal is unfolding.  Bertie’s strategy of alternating between seeming cooperation with the Tribunal while letting Conor Maguire level the accusations has finally drawn the Judge out of his cautious mode.  With the phrase “political donation for personal use” destined to enter the political lexicon (and [...]

Bertie Ahern has so far avoided “pleading the 5th” at Mahon today.   But he hasn’t needed to, being able to draw on a host of undocumented intra-family transfers and yet more dead people in order to be vague about where the money was coming from.  Today’s it’s the £10,000 in the Irish Permanent, consisting of [...]

Needless to say, I now understand. The chart makes it so much easier than listening to him.

Via That’s Ireland, Green Ink, Maman Poulet

One wonders if the Cabinet have decided to collect their deferred pay raises as travel benefits. Just in the last few days: Mary Hanafin postpones a trip to the USA by a day to appear at a Dail debate on autism; Dermot Ahern still says he’s travelling across the world to East Timor even with [...]