Opposition TDs debate Ahern sanction

Opposition TDs have begun meeting in Leinster House to decide what sanction they will take against the Taoiseach over controversies surrounding his 1990s financial affairs.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Bertie Ahern’s testimony at the Mahon Tribunal was not credible and Labour’s Eamon Gilmore called for the Fianna Fail leader’s resignation.

Senior Government ministers Brian Cowen, Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern have rallied around the Taoiseach and Green Party minister Trevor Sargent said he would wait for the inquiry’s report.

Fine Gael’s new-look front bench and Labour’s parliamentary party will both discuss the issue before the Leaders’ Questions showdown with Mr Ahern in the Dáil at 3.45pm.

“A motion of no confidence is still firmly on the agenda of the front bench meeting,” said a Fine Gael spokesman.

There has been informal contacts on the issue between both Opposition parties since early morning.

During four days of testimony, the Taoiseach told the Mahon Tribunal that he could not remember driving his former partner Celia Larkin to a Dublin bank in 1995 to pick up a parcel of £50,000 cash.

Ms Larkin had earlier given evidence that she recalled Mr Ahern driving her to the AIB branch on O’Connell Street.

Mr Ahern also told the tribunal that a mathematical formula put forward by his legal team to demonstrate that a £30,000 lodgement was in sterling and not dollars has now been shown to be wrong.

Under the Dáil’s rules, a motion of no confidence can only be tabled once every six months.

“It is the ultimate sanction against a government,” commented an Opposition source.

It will be first motion of no confidence in the current Taoiseach who came to power in 1997.

Previous motions were tabled against former Taoiseach Charles Haughey in the early 1990s.

The Dáil resumes today after the summer recess and Mr Ahern will be already under Opposition pressure on cancer services and the decision to switch Heathrow slots from Shannon Airport to Belfast.