Ahern payments - Dáil drama is more about future of PDs

The crisis that has bedeviled the Government for more than a week is over and the coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats remains intact.

Unashamedly, it was deflated by Tánaiste Michael McDowell who declared Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was wrong to take payments but still fit to remain in office.

Mr Ahern’s predicament is over, but it remains to be seen if Michael McDowell and his party have yet to confront one next summer.

His explanation for continued support of the Government, and remaining with it, was inexplicably because the opposition had not demanded his resignation.

Despite this, resignation was mooted by Trevor Sargent of the Green Party as one of three options facing Mr Ahern.

Earlier, the Taoiseach made a l5-minute statement in the Dáil explaining the circumstances and described accepting loans and gifts in 1993 and 1994 as an “error of judgement”.

Mr Ahern did not deliver anything like a valedictory speech, but dealt with the issues raised in a calm and reasonable manner.

Because the recent revelations had been deeply upsetting for him, and others near and dear to him, he said that to them, the Irish people and the House he offered his apologies.

Although it was a misjudgement to have accepted the money, Mr Ahern reiterated unequivocally that he had not been in any breach of law or code of conduct. He did nothing wrong, according to his own lights and, apparently, those of the PDs.

Given that Tánaiste Michael McDowell had sight of the statement, the form of words the Taoiseach used, he could not have been surprised by what he delivered.

Realistically, there was little to emerge from the eagerly awaited debate that was unpredictable. Mr Ahern failed to identify most of the Manchester people, but was adamant there was no quid pro quo.

In any case, he had been given considerable leeway on the question of identity by Mr McDowell, in advance of his Dáil appearance.

While the Taoiseach’s script was tinged with regret, it might be explained by his comment that he would not have taken the money if he knew the bewilderment it would cause all these years later.

Bertie Ahern faced one of the greatest tests of his thirty-year political career and passed it with the help, and endorsement, of the PDs.

The Dáil was afforded two hours to debate an issue which had gripped the Government and the country in a welter of controversy.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte and Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, pursued Mr Ahern on the question of accepting the money, apart from the questions of law, tax or ethics, futilely.

For them, the issue of a sitting office-holder taking money is still an issue that will not go away.

More than a decade ago, the Taoiseach had wrongly, and quietly, accepted the equivalent of €60,000 from wealthy businessmen. That eventually came back to haunt him via a leak from the Mahon Tribunal and the Irish Times and, subsequently, himself.

In insisting he had done nothing wrong legally or in ethics, in taking €50,000 from wealthy friends and another €10,000 from businessmen in Manchester, Mr Ahern sought to evade standards which he imposed on other office-holders.

It was unequivocally wrong, and he pursued a fatuous argument in regards to Manchester, whereby he maintained he acted in a private capacity, rather than as Minister for Finance, which he was.

It was a line of defence very few accepted, finding it impossible to understand how a minister could divest himself of his seal of office when it suited himself, and at will.

Tánaiste and PD leader, Mr McDowell has come to convoluted, though predictable, terms with the Fianna Fáil argument, even though in accepting the payments from businessmen more than a decade ago, he did not think Mr Ahern did right.

In doing so, he appears to have surrendered the high moral ground to the exigencies of politics, which in this case means remaining in coalition government for possibly seven or eight more months.

Then, in the looming General Election, the people will be able to opt for something which Mr McDowell holds in very high regard, accountability.

In a perverse way, the drama which engulfed the Dáil yesterday had as much implication for the future of the PDs, if not more so, than the Taoiseach.

Other than the personal odium of having to address the Dáil and explain the payments, which was a major embarrassment to him, Mr Ahern had what amounted to in racing parlance an each-way bet.

If the PDs decided to abandon the Taoiseach, and therefore their place at the Cabinet table, there was the prospect of a relatively short arrangement with Independents.

Senior Fianna Fáil ministers had already intimated that the party, while preferably continuing to share power with the PDs, was quite prepared to do business with some Independent members of the Dáil.

The barrage of opposition fury became directed more at the Tánaiste, as he wavered between a mode of deep concern over the foibles of Mr Ahern and a distaste for heads on plates, especially as one might be his own.