Dermot Ahern urges 'perspective' on Bertie crisis

A senior Irish Government minister today called for a sense of perspective in the deepening crisis facing his boss, premier Bertie Ahern.

The nine-year term of the Fianna Fail party leader could end next week unless he can give a satisfactory explanation about an £8,000 (€11,800) payment he received while Finance Minister at a Manchester speaking function in 1994.

At the insistence of Opposition leaders, Mr Ahern is being forced to make a statement on the affair in the Dáil parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said today: "We have to have a sense of proportionality in relation to this.

"Are we going to throw out a Taoiseach who was the best labour minister in the history of this state? Are we going to throw out the Taoiseach who brought in the Good Friday Agreement, with the aid of others?

The minister recalled how Mr Ahern pulled himself away from the Northern talks table for his mother's funeral before returning to the discussions again immediately afterwards.

"He is head and shoulders over any other leader in the EU," he told RTE Radio.

He added: "There is nobody in Leinster House to hold a candle to the Taoiseach in relation to being leader of the country."

The Dundalk TD reiterated that Mr Ahern was in financial difficulties at the time due to his separation with his wife. It wasn't right to retrospectively apply current laws on ethics and taxation to past events, he said.

The latest developments pose the biggest-ever threat to the two-party Coalition government of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats (PD).

Last Thursday deputy premier and PD leader Michael McDowell warned that there were 'significant matters of concern' which were not addressed by the premier's explanations of the Manchester payment.

The ten-day controversy was triggered by newspaper leaks about financial records Mr Ahern had supplied in confidence to the Mahon Tribunal, which is probing planning corruption.

Two journalists responsible for breaking the story face potential fines or imprisonment next Wednesday after refusing to reveal their sources.

Premier Ahern said the leaks were politically motivated and designed to damage him.

Mr Ahern first casually mentioned the Manchester payment on Tuesday while discussing an unpaid €50,000 loan he received from a dozen friends to fund his marital separation in the early 1990s.

Dermot Ahern refused to say if the Taoiseach was wrong to accept the Manchester payment but admitted he wouldn't do it personally.

Last night Finance Minster Brian Cowen said the Taoiseach 'was not incorrect' to take the money.

But Minister Ahern said today: "I'm lucky enough in my life to have never been in financial difficulties, and I can't say what I would do in those circumstances.

"It was the context in which Bertie Ahern found himself at that time. I can't put myself into a person's situation.

But he added: "I would not do it and I'm lucky enough that I haven't been able to do it."

The People Before Profit Alliance is to hold an anti-corruption protest outside the Dáil parliament to coincide with Tuesday's debate.