Ahern challenged to probe claim of coke-use minister

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was yesterday challenged to investigate a claim that one of his senior ministers was a regular consumer of cocaine.

Fine Gael front bench spokesman Simon Coveney tried to raise the issue in the Dáil when he confronted Mr Ahern over claims made in a new book on drug abuse by the middle classes in Ireland.

The High Society: Drugs and the Irish Middle Class is written by journalist Justine Delaney Wilson and suggests a minister admitted to the author that he was a regular user of cocaine.

Ms Delaney Wilson wrote that she met a government minister in Buswell’s Hotel, situated near Leinster House, in October 2006 who spoke to her about his drug habit.

The minister, who is not identified, is purported to have said: “Yes, I do take drugs — just coke though — regularly enough. I’m certainly not the only one around here that does. The hypocrisy that surrounds it really galls me.”

During Order of Business, Mr Coveney attempted to raise the issue, but was ruled out of order by Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue.

“The Taoiseach is obliged to take responsibility for the Government and his ministers and the simple question I want to ask is whether he has investigated the reports,” said Mr Coveney.

The Cork South Central deputy quoted the text from the book and also pointed out a further assertion that the minister was not the only politician in Leinster House to be a user of cocaine.

Mr Coveney’s intervention in the Chamber triggered widespread discussion in Leinster House as to whether or not the allegation was true and about the identity and status of the minister who uses cocaine.

Later Mr Coveney told the Irish Examiner that it was important that the Taoiseach, as head of a government that claimed to be tough on all forms of crime, established to his satisfaction that no senior or junior ministers, past or present, were recreational drug users. However, the Taoiseach’s spokesman said that they had no information in relation to the allegation and that it would be inappropriate to comment in those circumstances.

Extract: Author meets a minister in Buswell’s Hotel, October 2006.

“Yes, I do take drugs — just coke though — regularly enough. I’m certainly not the only one around here that does. The hypocrisy that surrounds it really galls me. We all know how widespread it is, in bars, offices and over there [motioning across the road to the Dáil], but we pretend to be horrified when we read the figures in the papers or hear about rampant use among professionals.

“When I was a kid, my parents would have people back to the house after church on Sunday mornings. They would all drink fairly heavily into the afternoon. I think at least half of the people they went to Mass with were probably alcoholics.

“The kids would be left unfed and got up to all manner of mischief, while their parents turned into messy drunks in front of them. Then they’d all drive home. You can’t tell me that that’s any better than adults having a few lines on a Thursday night after work.”

The High Society: Drugs and the Irish Middle Class is written by journalist Justine Delaney.