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.