Ahern’s plea ‘a defence for drug dealers and pimps’
Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar lashed out at Mr Ahern on Tuesday night, saying his evidence at the Mahon Tribunal was like that of drug dealer John Gilligan, who was implicated in the murder of crime journalist, Veronica Guerin.
During a debate on whether Dáil holidays should be extended, Mr Varadkar said politics in this country was falling apart.
“A former Taoiseach has gone into the tribunal and essentially given the ‘John Gilligan defence’ that he won the money on horses. This is a defence for drug dealers and pimps and not the kind of thing that should be tolerated from a former Taoiseach and member of this house,” he said.
Dáil records show there were no interventions to defend Mr Ahern.
The Fine Gael front bench spokesperson on enterprise and employment said Health Minister, Mary Harney, was the only Government minister who had “the balls” to answer difficult questions to the house.
Following his tongue lashing of his political opponents, the outspoken Mr Varadkar subjected his own party to criticism.
Speaking on Newstalk radio, he said Fine Gael’s Lisbon campaign was “not very smart”.
Referring to campaign posters featuring the “mugs” of politicians, he said his own party is as much to blame as anyone else.
“What we should have done is put up posters with ‘Vote Yes For a Democratic Europe’, because the Lisbon treaty was the democratic revolution for Europe… ironically a lot of people voted no because they wanted democracy… We should have put up posters saying ‘Save Our Commissioner’ because now we’re going to lose our commissioner,” he said.
