Hanafin admits Larkin loan was ‘irregular’
“I don’t know of any other circumstances where that has happened around the country with Fianna Fáil money,” said Ms Hanafin yesterday.
The admission came as a poll revealed one in two voters no longer trust Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to run the country.
The £30,000 was paid to Ms Larkin in 1993 from a Fianna Fáil account in Mr Ahern’s Dublin Central constituency.
Ms Larkin, who was Mr Ahern’s partner at the time, used the money to purchase a house. It was repaid only after the Mahon Tribunal began investigating Mr Ahern’s personal finances.
On RTÉ’s The Week in Politics last night, Ms Hanafin said each Fianna Fáil cumann had responsibility for its own accounts.
“So it might have been within the remit of the trustees to allow it. But certainly it was a very unusual activity,” she said.
Ms Hanafin also acknowledged there would be a problem if the Taoiseach’s tribunal difficulties began distracting from the work of government, but said that hadn’t happened so far.
“Insofar as it’s not distracting from the work of government, that’s the important message... if it was, then obviously we couldn’t continue on, but it’s not.”
Meanwhile, the latest opinion poll has shown one in two voters no longer trusts Mr Ahern to run the country. Despite this, however, support for Fianna Fáil has increased marginally in the last month.
The findings would appear to suggest the majority of voters wants Fianna Fáil to continue running the country but without Mr Ahern.
The Taoiseach has had difficulty explaining large sums of money which flowed into his accounts in the 1990s.
The poll shows the amount of people who no longer trust Mr Ahern to run the country after hearing his But while the poll reflects poorly on Mr Ahern personally, it shows his party is not suffering from the tribunal fall-out.
This is likely to ease the pressure on Mr Ahern and soothe some, if not all, anxious backbenchers.
The poll showed Fianna Fáil on 37% — up one point since January. Fine Gael were down one point to 31%. Labour, the Greens and the PDs were unchanged at 10%, 7% and 2% respectively. Sinn Féin were down one point to 8%, while Independents were up two points to 6%.
Differences of plus or minus 1% are not of themselves significant in a poll which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
However, the overall pattern between this and the January poll is that Fianna Fáil support remains steady, with the opposition — particularly Fine Gael — failing to make ground, despite the controversy in which Mr Ahern finds himself.
The polling is carried out each month by Red C for the Sunday Business Post.
Yesterday’s poll also showed 46% of people intend voting yes to the Lisbon Treaty, up a point since January.
The number of people intending to vote against the treaty has fallen by two points to 23%.
