The case for and against Bertie: Now it’s make your mind up time

THE biggest ongoing political story of 2007 is set to dominate 2008 again: the investigation of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s previous financial affairs at the Mahon Tribunal. Many people can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing, both for Ahern and for the country. To tease out the issues I’ve set out a fictional conversation between two people, arguing both sides. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

Man A: It’s a disgrace what’s happening to Bertie. A decent man who has done so much for the country, and what gratitude do we show him? He’s being subjected to a public investigation of all of his most private affairs and, as he said himself, it’s none of our bloody business. What sort of country have we become that we do this to our best, the man who brought peace to Northern Ireland?

Man B: What sort of country would we have if we didn’t investigate the stuff he was doing while holding elected office? He’s only under investigation because he can’t explain how tens of thousands of pounds flowed in and out of bank accounts when he was finance minister and when he was just becoming leader of Fianna Fáil. Or the six years that he didn’t have a bank account. Or the gifts he calls loans and the whip-rounds and brown paper bags stuffed with cash left on his seat in a pub.