Bullish Bertie - Banking inquiry

AT Bertie Ahern’s much-anticipated appearance yesterday before the Oireachtas banking inquiry, he sought to justify his roles as finance minister, and as Taoiseach during the Celtic Tiger.

In a phrase reminiscent of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth’s at Dublin Castle in 2011, he reflected that, “with hindsight, of course, I would have done things differently,” but the bulk of his contribution was that he had acted prudently on behalf of the Irish people.

He stacked up a fair amount of evidence in his favour, recording that when he was Taoiseach Ireland surpassed average EU living standards, kept expenditure low in terms of GNP and that, even as late as 2009, the IMF did not see the country heading for a major crash.

There was one almost Clinton-esque moment, when he was questioned by committee members.

“There’s a good few definitions of a property bubble,” he told told Sinn Féin TD, Pearse Doherty.

A classic Bertieism that made watching the proceedings more than worthwhile.