Ahern’s cash row - Reynolds has reopened old wounds

Just when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern may have imagined that the issue of the money he accepted as Finance Minister was safely behind him, it was revisited once again by the man he succeeded.

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was unequivocal as to whether his predecessor was wrong or not to take the money and said so on national radio yesterday.

He said he strongly believed that there was no way a member of a government should finance anything he was doing in that respect.

What is more, had Bertie Ahern asked his then boss, there was no question but he would have told him not to take money in the way he did during that period.

It was a remarkable ticking-off by a former Taoiseach to the present incumbent, and it was delivered on RTÉ in an interview with Marian Finucane.

Mr Ahern may think he did nothing wrong in accepting loans of €50,000 during his separation, when Minister for Finance, but his boss at the time certainly thinks it is bad for politics.

Acknowledging that the present Taoiseach was going through a marriage break-up, Mr Reynolds believes he should not have accepted the financial help from wealthy friends.

It was an episode that not only gripped the nation last year when details of Mr Ahern’s private financial arrangements of more than a decade previously became public knowledge, it threatened the coalition Government with the PDs.

The Taoiseach survived the embarrassment and through his television interview and address to the Dáil emerged with the sympathy of very many people throughout the country.

In a perverse way, his popularity in the opinion polls increased following the incident, although Fianna Fáil showed a dip yesterday, independent of the previous Taoiseach’s remarks.

A poll in the Sunday Tribune showed that the main parties, Fine Gael and Labour, had gained support, although still behind the Government.

Fianna Fáil had slipped three points in three months, down to 39% in the IMS Millward Brown survey.

That may be dismissed by the Taoiseach as of no consequence at this stage, but the remarks of Albert Reynolds cannot be consigned so easily.

That the former Taoiseach chose to go public now may reflect the relationship between the two men.

What he said mirrored the opinion of most people in the country in that Mr Ahern should not have taken the money while a senior member of the Government.

Being so publicly reminded by somebody respected in the Fianna Fáil party, relatively close to a General Election, was something the Taoiseach could not have expected.