Ahern earns €145k on talks alone

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern earned an estimated €145,000 from speaking engagements last year, travelling to New York, Honduras, Nigeria and Madrid where he delivered lectures for fees of €29,000.

This is in addition to his half-rate taoiseach’s pension of €55,000 last year, his salary of more than €100,000 as a backbench TD, his payments as a columnist with the News of the World and the earnings from his autobiography which were tax-free under the artists’ exemption.

The sports columnist also got a free trip to the Italian city of Bari to watch the World Cup qualifier against Italy last March, paid for by the FAI for what he said was “in recognition of my support for the FAI”.

The details are contained in the register of interests of TDs published yesterday, showing extra earnings as well as property and business interests of Dáil members.

Mr Ahern took 15 trips abroad which he did not have to pay for, including five times to speak for the Washington Speakers Bureau which charges $40,000 or around €29,000 for a speech by the Dublin Central TD.

Other speakers include former US president George Bush, magician David Blaine, and Playboy chief executive Christie Hefner.

Mr Ahern also travelled to New York to address the Clinton Global Initiative, to Dubai for the World Economic Forum and Durham University in England for the Mo Mowlam Memorial Lecture.

According to the list of registered interests, at least 31 government TDs are landlords – some with extensive property portfolios at home and abroad.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen owns three rental properties, including two in Dublin and one in Leeds which was at the centre of a dispute last year over claims a consortium had illegally rented the property to a university.

Galway West Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey, has 18 properties, including houses in Villefranche, France, and the Jumeirah resort in Dubai, as well as shares in rental apartments in Brussels and Boston. He continues to expand his property portfolio having recently paid a deposit and signed a contract for a property in Porto De Mos, Portugal.

Son of the late taoiseach, Charles J Haughey, Séan Haughey, has shares in 44 companies in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Holland and the USA. He disposed of his shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland last November.