Bookies Betting on Bertie’s Ouster

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Bookies Betting on Bertie’s Ouster

December 5, 2007

By Paddy Clancy

TAOISEACH (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern is odds-on favorite with bookies to be the next party leader to step down or resign as pressure mounts for more details from him on his personal finances.

The Paddy Power chain has him at 10/11 –- meaning laying a bet of $11 to win a profit of $10 -– to be the next leader to either go voluntarily or be pushed by his party.

There is widespread speculation that Ahern may not even stay in office until the local government elections next summer.

Opposition leader Enda Kenny recalled on Tuesday that several contradictions of explanations by Ahern had “corroded” his credibility and meant there were still questions about the movement of about $440,000 in today’s terms into personal bank accounts.

Kenny asked how it could be that the prime minister of a country could have a record showing movement of £30,000 in sterling -– about $55,000 -– and not remember where it came from. Kenny also referred to movements of other sums without satisfactory explanation.

“What I’m concerned about is that we have had no credible explanations for the movements of these sums of money into the taoiseach’s personal bank account,” Kenny said.

He agreed that the Irish people had returned Ahern to power in the general election earlier this year when his finances were already under scrutiny.

“The Irish people are forgiving and understanding but don’t take them for fools. Nobody believes this carry-on,” Kenny added.

His attack followed a demand by a backbencher from Ahern’s own Fianna Fail party for a public statement from the taoiseach on the continuing controversy surrounding his personal finances.

TD (Parliament member) Noel O’Flynn from Cork North Central said he fully supported Ahern but urged him to “clarify” a number of matters after new revelations in the Mahon tribunal last week.

“There are political implications for allegations that have been made and it may be in the public interest for him to make a statement,” O’Flynn said.

Ahern, who has already given evidence to the tribunal which is probing allegations of corrupt links between politicians and business interests, is due to give further testimony later this month.

He said on Monday that he believed a $9,300 donation he received in 1993 as part of a $42,000 whip-around was from the personal funds of former managing director of NCB stockbrokers Padraic O’Connor.

The Mahon tribunal heard last week that the payment was requested by former Fianna Fail chief fundraiser Des Richardson and was made through a false invoice. However, O’Connor maintained it was not a personal loan, that it was a donation to Fianna Fail and that he was not a close friend of Ahern.

Ahern agreed it was wrong to use a false invoice but distanced himself from the transaction when he said it was “done between the two of them” - Richardson and O’Connor

On a separate issue, Ahern dismissed claims that he gave implicit approval to the National Lottery to enter talks with Manchester businessman Norman Turner about becoming involved in his plans for a casino in Dublin on the site of the old Phoenix Park racecourse.

Ahern was minister for finance at the time of the talks in the early 1990s and had political responsibility for the lottery. The contacts did not lead to any formal deal between the lottery and Turner.

But Ahern’s rejection of claims that he approved the talks conflicted sharply with the account of former National Lottery chairman John Hynes. He said he would not have entered talks without implicit approval.

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