Taoiseach’s finances - The year of unanswered questions

IN TIME the big story of last year may not be the general election and Bertie Ahern’s hat trick of general election victories, but the questions that would not go away about his finances, or the Punch and Judy routine between his government and the Mahon Tribunal.

Early in the year he was calling for his chance to clear up matters at the tribunal.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell took a clear swipe at the tribunal, intimating that it should be wound

up but after further revelations, he seemed to wish to distance himself and the Progressive Democrats from the Taoiseach during the general election campaign.

But Mr McDowell was undermined from within his own party, which dithered and then virtually disappeared in the election backlash.

When the Taoiseach testified for four days at the tribunal in September, he appeared uncharacteristically confrontational. And during his two-day appearance shortly before Christmas he was even tetchier.

That session ended with unanswered questions about a further £5,000 lodged in Mr Ahern’s building society account in January 1994.

The year ended with allegations that he misled the public and the Dáil in relations to his tax affairs.

He told the Dáil on 27 September, 2007, that he had dealt properly with the taxes implications of his Manchester “digout.”

It seems, however, that this was news to Revenue officials, who had no record of any contact with him on the matter. It is now being stated, on Mr Ahern’s behalf, that when he said that he consulted tax authorities, he was referring to his own personal tax advisers.

The Revenue Commissioners have been in touch with him in relation to his financial matters.

This raises questions about the apparent leaking of Revenue documents, but that is a wholly different matter, which should not be allowed to obscure the need for answers.

Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party, has called for the Taoiseach to make a clear statement in relation to his taxes. The Dáil is not due to reconvene until late January and these questions are not going to go away.

It is patently disingenuous of the Taoiseach and his supporters to pretend that he is being victimised by the tribunal, which is doing its job.

The bluff and bluster tactics became tiresome in 2007, and it is to be hoped that the Taoiseach and his followers will adopt a New Year’s resolution of being less confrontational when he returns to the tribunal later this month.

Nobody should forget that the Taoiseach has a good political record, and he has been personally very popular.

He was never one to go for the jugular in relation to the mistakes of the opposition, and this has served him well politically.

There is an old saying that “the man who never made a mistake never made anything”.

People can understand and forgive mistakes, as was demonstrated by the way the public accepted some of the government’s dramatic U-turns last year. But it would be wrong to underestimate the public’s intelligence or tolerance.