Martin: ‘Resilient’ Ahern will stay until 2011

ENTERPRISE Minister Micheál Martin says he can see no impediment to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern remaining in office for the foreseeable future.

Mr Ahern’s personal finances have been the source of fresh controversy in recent days following the revelation that he will be unable to furnish the state’s ethics watchdog with a tax clearance certificate.

The Revenue will not issue the certificate, which stipulates that the holder is tax compliant, until it determines whether Mr Ahern owes tax from the 1990s.

Fine Gael and Labour have raised questions about Mr Ahern’s fitness for office given the continuing Mahon Tribunal investigation of his personal finances and his inability to obtain a tax clearance certificate.

But speaking yesterday, Mr Martin predicted Mr Ahern would remain as taoiseach for the foreseeable future.

“I think the Taoiseach has proven himself to be an extraordinarily resilient politician. I think he’s achieved an enormous amount over the last decade. I see nothing in his demeanour that would in any way suggest that resilience is fading,” Mr Martin told NewsTalk 106FM.

“I think he’s very determined. The last meeting we had last week in Government, he laid out the road map for the future and he’s very much focused on the referendum coming forward on the European reform treaty, on the social partnership talks that are commencing, and indeed from a macro position to get the economy right and sustain the economy, and also to work with our colleagues in Government on the climate change agenda.”

Mr Ahern has spoken of his desire to remain in parliamentary politics until he turns 60 in 2011. Mr Martin said: “The Taoiseach had [everything] road mapped in terms of his political career and I don’t see anything on the horizon that would in any way deviate from that.”

Mr Ahern’s exact departure date remains a matter of much speculation. Recently, the Taoiseach signalled his intention to lead Fianna Fáil into the local and European elections in mid-2009. But if he remains in politics until 2011 as indicated, it will only be as a TD and not as taoiseach, many within his party believe.