Ahern’s government widely mismanaged our finances

Re Bertie Ahern’s appearance at the banking inquiry. Bertie received 18 pay increases between 2001 and 2009. His pay in 2008 was a staggering €285,582.00 per annum, €5,500 a week, not including expenses.

His then minister, and now leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin commissioned 145 reports at a cost to the taxpayer of €30m. That government also spent €50m on ill-fated e-voting machines and wasted €220m on the P-Pars project. From 2007 to 2009, they paid private companies €55m for consultancy reports that should have been carried out by civil servants.

Dan McSweeny