Payments crisis - Explanations must satisfy the public

Coming from a position of stonewalling any debate on the Taoiseach’s financial affairs in the Dáil yesterday, Tánaiste Michael McDowell came to the realisation quickly that there are fundamental questions that Bertie Ahern must answer.

Mr McDowell spoke to the Taoiseach yesterday after the latter’s attempts at justifying the payment equivalent of e10,000 in Manchester back in the ’90s, and he obviously was not happy with the answers he was given.

For Mr McDowell there are now “very significant matters of concern” that Mr Ahern must answer, indicating a certain distancing by the PDs from their partners in Government.

Significantly, the Tánaiste referred to the public’s confidence in the “sustainability of the Government” and the fact that it required the issues to be addressed within the time frame that Dáil Éireann allowed for.

If, as he averred, there must be full accountability in the Dáil, then he must insist that an explanation be provided for the payment, and that it must be acceptable to the public.

That will not be satisfied by the Government’s proposal to allocate a pathetic 35 minutes of statements on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s financial affairs and was an utterly risible attempt to circumvent a potentially deepening embarrassment.

Such an arrangement would be wholly inadequate and totally unacceptable. The opposition leaders were entirely correct to reject it out of hand.

Instead, Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt will now meet his counterparts from the opposition to consider their request for a question and answer session in relation to the issue next Tuesday.

It would appear that his financial affairs do warrant probing at length.

In the course of a selective television interview, rather than a press conference, the aim of which was to explain why he accepted the equivalent of €50,000 from business friends of his, Mr Ahern revealed that he had also accepted €10,000 (£8,000 sterling) for an after-dinner speech in Manchester, when he was Minister for Finance.

Having already given a rather qualified support to the Taoiseach on the question of the €50,000, although it was “ill-advised” and an “error of judgment”, Tánaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell refused to allow any discussion on the €10,000 in the Dáil yesterday.

It appeared to be an inauspicious beginning to his initial deputising for the Taoiseach in the national parliament. His deputy in the Progressive Democrats, Liz O’Donnell was under no illusion that the Taoiseach has yet to fully explain the €10,000 from Manchester because there are still issues arising that have not received an adequate amount of scrutiny or inquiry.

Ms O’Donnell, while not imputing any untoward conduct on the Taoiseach’s part, is quite adamant, too, that the best place to dispose of the issue is in the Dáil.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny also believes Mr Ahern has a case to answer in the Dáil, and he raised the spectre of his position becoming untenable should similar issues emerge.

In an effort to defuse the second controversy, the Taoiseach maintains, as he did about the €50,000, that he did nothing wrong.

His is rather a tenuous argument. He has maintained that he attended the function in Manchester in a private capacity, insisting that it was not an official dinner and he paid his own costs.