Bertie still only chasing the big boys but his financial modesty is ruined

Ahern’s oft self-declared financial modesty is in tatters these days. This man of simple tastes — who wants nothing more than a few pints of Bass, a stroll through the (free-to-enter) Botanic Gardens and the occasional trip to Old Trafford — is far more interested in money than he ever let on.

AN independent TV company is making a programme for RTÉ at present that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern would be best advised not to watch when it is broadcast, probably at the end of this year, in case it drives him mad.

The programme is to be a ‘list’ of the 50 top-earning people in Ireland, a follow-up to a similar effort last year that detailed the 50 richest people in the country. Despite all the fuss about Ahern’s new salary of e310,000 per year he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of featuring in this RTÉ production.

Let’s imagine who might be on the list ahead of him. Many hospital consultants, including cancer care specialist Dr John Crown, the man knocked off the Late Late Show last Friday evening, have higher earnings than the Taoiseach, although whether or not any get onto this Top 50 countdown remains to be seen.

That programme’s presenter, Pat Kenny, has a good chance of featuring, too, given that his last reported pay from RTÉ was not far short of e1 million in a year. Indeed, there may be five other RTÉ stars who earn more than the Taoiseach.

Ahern also knows that many chief executives in the commercial State sector — companies ultimately under his Government’s control — get better pay and conditions that he does. Their tenure is a damn sight more secure, too.

But their rewards pale by comparison with what’s available in corporate Ireland. Bank shares may be tumbling, but it’ll be amazing if the bosses of AIB, Bank of Ireland and other smaller banks get anything less than e1 million per man this year.

Many top bosses in all walks of commercial life avail of a range of tax incentives that reward certain profitable investments by a reduction in tax due, which means they pay little or no tax at all each year. Revenue Commissioners’ statistics have shown it is possible to earn more than e1m a year and pay less than e50,000 in tax. I’m aware of some company owners who have extracted tax-free sums of between e5m and e15m in a single year because the money is being sent to an approved pension fund.

Ahern must look agog in particular at the survival of one titan of corporate Ireland, a gentleman called Jim Flavin. He was the founding shareholder of an investment company called DCC. It invests in all sorts of companies from computers to house-building to fruit distribution. This multi-millionaire remains its full-time chairman although he owns only a small portion of DCC’s total shares. Flavin’s place on the gravy-train is under threat, however, as the Director of Corporate Enforcement is preparing a legal action to have him blocked from acting as a director of any company.

While Ahern labours under the investigation of the Mahon tribunal into his discharge of personal financial responsibilities 13 years ago, Flavin has been found guilty by the Supreme Court of unlawful insider trading.

Without going into the details of a complicated case, Flavin was found guilty of selling DCC’s shares in another company, Fyffes, while in possession of information that he knew would, if made public, have driven the share price down. He sold four major investors shares they would not have bought at those prices had they known what Flavin did because of his privileged position, making DCC possibly as much as e85m in unearned profits.

Given the seriousness of that finding by the highest court of the land, just how Flavin remains at the helm in DCC and how his high-powered board of directors have endorsed this is a disgraceful blemish not just on the company but on the standards that apply in corporate Ireland.

If he were a politician he would have been tarred and feathered by the public and media. Instead, he pompously bleats about his own fine ethics and standards as if somehow the Supreme Court’s finding of fact doesn’t matter.

Other failures are likely to find their way onto this top earner’s list. Former Irish football manager Steve Staunton was on more than e450,000 per year, and if he gets paid up the balance of his contract before year end, then his e1 million plus earnings for the year should get him into the Top 50. Such is the benefit of being let go for not doing the job properly.

There will be some success stories on the list, however. Ahern’s son-in-law, Westlife warbler Nicky Byrne, is likely to feature, such is the band’s annual earning power. His daughter Cecilia may feature, too, so successful and popular an author has she become. While Ahern must be proud of both his daughters, he may also wonder at times just how he didn’t become as wealthy as them given his undoubted successes as the most popular politician in Ireland for the last 20 years.

Instead, he is mired in explanations as to his need for a ‘dig-out’ 13 years ago just as he became leader of Fianna Fáil. As Ahern explains it, what others would see as gifts were loans and what we would see as payments were merely gifts.

He does not regard the sums involved as particularly large, although in modern-day terms they would amount to more than e300,000. He doesn’t think that others should find it odd that he had no bank account when Minister for Finance, that he was dealing in all sorts of currencies that don’t add up and that he was able to buy a house for less than its market value. It’s all excused by personal difficulties caused at the time by his marriage break-up.

I wouldn’t be dragging all of this up again were it not for the fact that Ahern’s oft self-declared financial modesty is in tatters these days. This man of simple tastes — who wants nothing more than a few pints of Bass in the evening, a stroll through the (free-to-enter) Botanic Gardens and the occasional trip to Old Trafford — is far more interested in money than he ever let on.

IT’S NOT just his decision to accept the massive pay rise that irks the public: it’s the way he has justified it by comparison with many world leaders that infuriates. To defend himself against charges that he is paid better than Bush, Brown, Merkel and Sarkozy — and he is — as if they are his equals, he has complained that they get lots of freebies that he doesn’t, including the use of accommodation. How people will remember that the next time he trots off to Dublin Castle to answer questions from the Mahon Tribunal about his finances.

It appears Ahern has been badly rattled by an investigation that he believes is unfair both in what it is examining and what it is doing to his reputation.

Knowing that he will not stand for re-election, it seems he is looking after number one, lashing out at his critics but taking whatever he believes is due to him, such as a big pay packet and an improved pension position. I hope that in years to come he’ll think it was all worth it.

The Taoiseach has many achievements to his name, but just as Charles Haughey’s legacy was ruined by his own greed, Ahern’s in danger of being tarnished similarly by money issues.

Finishing in the Top 50 list of income- earners in this country is unimportant. It is a list that will be forgotten as soon as the TV programme is over. Advancement in politics is not supposed to be about money, but the higher calling of public service. Being remembered as a fine Taoiseach is far more important and historic achievement than making loads of money.