Ahern keeps low profile as he prepares to honour Blair at dinner

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will honour his former British counterpart, Tony Blair, at a charity fundraising dinner in Dublin next month.

The dinner, to be held at Dublin Castle with a guest list also including Senator George Mitchell, will take place on April 11, the day after Senator Mitchell and Mr Ahern meet in the North for a 10th anniversary celebration of the Belfast Agreement.

Funds raised on the occasion will go to the Turn the Tide of Suicide organisation to support a number of cross-border suicide prevention initiatives.

The Taoiseach said he was pleased to be able to recognise the work of the volunteers behind the organisation and said it was appropriate that the dinner in honour of Mr Blair be used to assist its work.

“I have spent many years working with Tony Blair and George Mitchell to bring an end to the political difficulties that defined Northern Ireland and its people for far too long. The value of human life and its fragility was always foremost in our minds during that time,” he said.

“This initiative to fund north-south research on depression and suicide is another step in helping us to understand the pain that many individuals and families on this island are forced to bear and in helping us to address the issue,” said Mr Ahern. The Taoiseach made his comments by written statement rather than publicly.

Apart from his appearance at the Easter Rising commemoration in Dublin on Sunday, he has not had any public engagements since leaving Ireland for the St Patrick’s Day trip to Washington.

Mr Ahern is expected to have some public outings this week, however, and it is likely that he will come under pressure to respond to the storm of controversy that blew up at the Mahon Tribunal in his absence last week.

His former secretary, Gráinne Carruth, gave evidence that contradicted the Taoiseach’s earlier testimony about the nature of lodgments to his building society accounts in the 1990s.

His brother, Junior Minister Noel Ahern, yesterday defended both witnesses, saying that the tribunal’s treatment of Ms Carruth was “shabby” and the Taoiseach had made every effort to provide explanations for what were distant financial transactions.

“If he got it wrong on one occasion, so what?” he told RTÉ.

The tribunal is taking a break this week before resuming next Tuesday, the day Mr Ahern’s own High Court challenge to aspects of its work is due to be heard.

The Dáil resumes after its extended break on Wednesday next week.