Taoiseach cash claims - Money matters, Mr Ahern

WHEN the Dáil resumes on Wednesday, the House will be dominated by one issue alone: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s receipt of money from businessmen back in 1993.

In politics, perception is all-important — that truism has particular relevance in the murky world of Irish politics where the reputations of prominent figures such as the late Charles J Haughey and his disgraced ex-Minister Ray Burke were left in ruins by Tribunal disclosures concerning monies they’d received from a golden circle of wealthy businessmen.

While there’s no suggestion of any wrongdoing on Mr Ahern’s part, there’s clearly an onus on him to come clean about whatever money he might have received from supporters and friends to pay legal bills following his marriage breakdown in the early 1990s.