New beginnings - Mr Ahern and Mahon

Bertie Ahern steps down today after almost 11 years as taoiseach.

In terms of longevity, he is the second longest serving taoiseach in history, second only to Eamon de Valera. It has been a period of unprecedented political stability, even though his Fianna Fáil party never managed to gain an overall majority in the Dáil under Mr Ahern’s leadership.

Prior to tendering his resignation to President Mary McAleese today, he will preside with Ian Paisley at the opening of the Boyne Centre.

This will highlight one of Mr Ahern’s greatest political contributions — his role in helping to negotiate the Good Friday agreement and cement the peace process in Northern Ireland. “In history, in politics and in life,” he told the US Congress last week, “there are no ends, only new beginnings.”

The opening of the Boyne Centre will, with any luck, initiate a new beginning in north-south relations, in which the successors of Mr Ahern and Dr Paisley will develop on the progress of the past decade.

Hopefully, Mr Ahern will also begin anew in his approach to the Mahon Tribunal. Lately, in the midst of favourable press coverage, he needlessly attacked the tribunal, calling its behaviour “low-life” and suggesting this week that the only issue about payments “are the payments that are being paid to run the tribunals”.

Most people would probably agree about the outrageous cost of the tribunals, but this was obvious even before Mr Ahern became minister for finance in the early 1990s. Complaining about the costs now highlights the failings of his governments.

Mr Ahern should now provide complete answers, so the Mahon Tribunal can wind up its necessary deliberations, and we can have the promised new beginning.