Attacks on Ahern’s presidential ambitions

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s ambitions of becoming president have been torpedoed by a cross-society attack on his legacy and his ambitions.

After he announced his decision not to contest the upcoming general election Mr Ahern said he had still to decide on whether or not to seek support for a presidential bid in late 2011.

However, the views of powerful bodies who were instrumental in maintaining his grip on power for 10 years have dismissed the suggestion he could or should run for Áras an Uachtaráin.

“Bertie Ahern did very little for us,” said Mark Fielding, the chief executive of the small businesses body ISME. “He was over-generous and gave in too easily to union demands. He was very much a fixer and he did not really think about the long-term cost of the fixes.”

Jack O’Connor, president of SIPTU, said apart from the Northern Irish peace process the former taoiseach will not be remembered well by the union movement adding Mr Ahern “seemed to have fallen prey to those who were mesmerised by the myth of the market”.

Fr Sean Healy, who was once invited by Mr Ahern to address Fianna Fáil on the need for a more caring policy approach, said for all his achievements the successes were not capitalised on.

“He failed to reform the public sector and to provide for economic and social infrastructure required to bring us up to average EU levels,” he said.

Tom Parlon, director general of the Construction Industry Federation, said he considered him an accessible leader.

“From a construction industry perspective, he was pro-development and as a result we have a very good national infrastructure. We may have an oversupply of houses but it’s minor enough in terms of the bigger picture. Personally I feel his legacy is overall a positive one,” Mr Parlon said.

Within FF his longtime friend and member of the National Executive, Jerry Beades, said the party would have to consider the results of the general election before deciding on the path it would take for the presidential election.

However, he said Mr Ahern had made “huge mistakes” in the economy and these were now having to be undone by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin said the departing deputy had been a huge success electorally but his reputation had suffered because “he is a figure identified with the boom period”. Meanwhile, Mr Ahern’s former Cabinet member, Kerry TD John O’Donoghue has admitted the decision by leading members of Fianna Fáil, including Ministers Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern, not to run in the election has spooked the party.

“I do not subscribe to the cynics’ perception that members are jumping from the Titanic,” said Mr O’Donoghue. “While we are in unchartered waters, there is no iceberg, other than a cold coalition of incompetence in opposition.”