Quotes from Mr Ahern's time in office
ON THE OPPOSITION
"Nobody's smokescreening. Perhaps if you stopped waffling, if
you stopped waffling we might get some work done. You're a waffler,
you've been years around here waffling." - To Gay Mitchell across
the floor of the Dáil chamber, December 1994.
"People had had enough of them after two years. Imagine if they were around again for five years. Sure we'd be back in the Third World in jig time." - On the idea of a Fine Gael/Labour coalition, September 2005
"The most hopeless policy that I ever heard pursued by any nitwit. You're a failed person, you were rejected and your political philosophy was rejected." - To Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins during a debate on housing, June 2006.
"Are you deaf as well as stupid?" - To Eamon Gilmore who asked when Mr Ahern would return to the tribunal, December 2007.
"I think he said that about teachers. I think he said that about
corporation tax. Any day now
he'll eliminate income tax. So he would be great. In fact,
I'd certainly think of voting for him, because everything would be
solved." - When asked about Gerry Adams's offer to give the nurses
all they demand, May 2007.
ON THE NORTH
"This is a day we should treasure - a day when agreement and
accommodation have replaced days of difference and division." -
Good Friday, April 10th, 1998.
"Yeah. People say 'does that mean physical, does that mean Semtex, does that mean guns?' It means that the principle has to be accepted and that then whatever modalities are worked by de Chastelain, because that is his expertise to work out how it actually happens, and that is what we mean." - Clarifying his position on decommissioning, February 1999.
"Building a lasting and just peace on this island is my great political goal, the priority that I will continue to put above all else." - June 2002.
"The success we have seen - in reimagining British-Irish relations and in establishing peace in Northern Ireland - is not the end, but only the beginning of what we can achieve together." - Addressing the Westminster parliament, May 2007.
"After so many decades of conflict, I am so proud, Madam Speaker, to be the first Irish leader to inform the United States Congress: Ireland is at peace." - Addressing the US joint houses of congress, April 2008.
ON HIS FINANCES
"I don't feel I need to own a huge house with a huge
glasshouse when I can go down the road 10 minutes and visit the
Botanic Gardens. It's just the way I think about things." -
November 2004.
"I'm not answering what I got for my Holy Communion money, my
Confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for
anything else, I'm not into that. I gave all the details of
everything to do with my life to the tribunal but I'm not under
investigation for any of these things, including the unjust and
unfair leak that's in the papers this morning." - September
2006.
"I was beholden to none of them and they were not beholden to me
. . . I've broken absolutely no codes, ethical, tax, legal or
otherwise . . . They gave me the £22,500 and I said that I
would deal, take this as a debt of honour, that I would repay it in
full, that I would pay interest on it." - On a £22,500
"dig-out" from friends in 1993, speaking to RTÉ in
September 2006.
"I'd saved it since 1987, through the whole period of my separation, which I don't think is any of your damned business. I saved it." - On he set aside for his daughters' education.
"I know Mr O'Connor, I know Mr O'Connor's family. I know a lot of Mr O'Connor's friends . . . Now if years later Mr O'Connor wants to disown me and he doesn't know me, well that's his bloody business not mine." - On the claim by NCB managing director Pádraic O'Connor that he was not a close personal friend and intended a £5,000 cheque, which Mr Ahern said was part of the 1993 "dig out", to go to Fianna Fáil.
"Some people put their hair yellow, some people wear rings in their nose, it's not the normal thing. I decided to cash my cheques, full stop." - Explaining why he didn't have a personal bank account when he was minister for finance in the early 1990s.
"It is unbelievable and I really, really don't believe . . . that you or anybody else would put that together, other than trying to set me up and stitch me up. That is just unbelievable. Unbelievable!" - Responding to questioning from tribunal counsel Des O'Neill in relation to the source of payments totalling £22,500 at the Mahon tribunal, December 2007.
"But the fact is that I do not get the same confidentiality, the same fair hearing and the same circumstances in a tribunal as anyone else. So it is not an equal playing pitch." - January 2008.
"They have asked me a number of questions, at different times last year. We have comprehensively dealt with them. So there's nothing outstanding between me and Revenue." - January 2008.
"It was a political donation for my personal use." - Giving evidence to the Mahon tribunal in relation to the £5,000 donation, February 2008.
"For a number of years I have engaged in private correspondence
with the Mahon tribunal, during the course of which I have handed
over a large volume of material covering details of my personal
finances over 20 years. The selective leaking of some of this
information has given rise to the current
controversy." - May 2007.
ON THE ECONOMY
"In actual fact the reason it's on the rise is
because probably the boom times are getting even more boomer." - In
relation to the rise in inflation, July 2006.
"We won't do anything zany." - Ruling out a giveaway budget, November 2006.
"It's going to be a hard year, and we need to keep working hard at it." - On the downturn, March 2008.
ON CRIME
"Armed both with revolvers, pistols and baseball
bats, and I suppose we could all conclude that whatever they were
about, they were up to no good." - Following Real IRA arrests,
January 2001.
"People serve too short a sentence for murder and sometimes you see what people serve for far lesser things . . . I think too many people who commit murders get out after seven years and personally I think it's too long . . . personally I think it's too short, I should say." - Following the shooting dead of Donna Cleary, March 2006.
"They expect us to look after their human rights and civil rights, but they have no respect for others. They turn on people. They're vicious thugs and I think they have to be treated accordingly." - On gangland killers after the violent murder of armed robber and drug dealer John Daly, October 2007.
ON THE IRAQ WAR
"We have a relationship with the US. I think we've
had that understanding for a long way back. For us to withdraw
something that's been there since 1955 was not something I was
prepared to do." - Defending the use of Shannon by the US military,
March 2003.
"Didn't I oppose the war throughout? It was just a few people who didn't really understand and believed I was supporting the war. I was always against the war." - December 2003.
"I was sat closer to him than you are now, and I looked at the great President Bush and said to him I wanted 'to be sure to be sure', and he assured me." - In relation to assurances that CIA rendition flights have not passed through Ireland, December 2006.
ON THE HEALTH SERVICE
"We can say that that is amazing, we can say that
that is extraordinary, we can say it shouldn't have happened, we
can say that it should have been rectified along the way by all the
ministers and all the secretaries general, but that doesn't get us
anywhere." - Responding to the Travers report on the
illegal charging of people in nursing homes for three
decades, March 2005.
"If our whole healthcare system is wrong, we shouldn't have GPs at all." - Defending the health system, July 2006.
ON HIS DEPARTURE
"[I] will definitely be there until 2011 or 2012." - November
2007
"I have said from a good while back that if I have the continued support of my colleagues, I will remain as Taoiseach." - December 2007.
ON HIS RESIGNATION
"The decision I am announcing today - like all other
decisions that I have taken in a lifetime in politics - is solely
motivated by what is best for the people . . . What I announce
today is completely inspired by the desire to refocus the political
dynamic in Ireland. Recent developments have not motivated my
decision . . . Never, in all the time I have served in public life,
have I put my personal interest ahead of the public good. I have
served this country and the people I have the honour to represent
in Dáil Éireann honestly . . . I have never received a
corrupt payment and I have never done anything to dishonour
any office I have held . . . I know that some people will
feel that some aspects of my finances are unusual. I truly regret
if this has caused any confusion or worry in people's minds." - His
resignation speech, April 2008
ON RAY BURKE
"I've been just about up every tree in north Co
Dublin chasing all kinds of things." - September 1997
"The persistent hounding of an honourable man to resign his important position, on the basis of innuendo and unproven allegations." - October 1997
"Deputy Ray Burke's political career was ended by Deputy [John] Bruton and his likes, not by me. I hope he is proud of his handiwork and that he never comes to a similar untimely political end." - October 1997
"There is no stonewalling." - Defending the Government's decision to set up a separate tribunal on planning in north Dublin rather than refer the payment of £30,000 to Mr Burke to the Moriarty tribunal, October 1997
"It is our belief that the whole matter can be dealt with in three months." - Referring to the establishment of the Flood [now Mahon] planning tribunal, September 1997
ON CHARLES HAUGHEY
"His judgement on the vast majority of issues has
been excellent" - October 1991.
"There are certainly issues which, unfortunately, as we view them, tarnish much of the good work that we have all been involved in - both myself and people who serve with me now and people who served with me in the years gone by." - July 1997
ON IVOR CALLELY
"The ongoing controversies made it impossible for him to
effectively and productively carry out his ministerial duties." -
December 2005
BERTIESPEAK
"There will be a whole lot of loo-las of every kind
and shape drifting around this country following the same nonsense
that they followed since 1972." - On the campaign against the
Lisbon Treaty, February 2008
"Governments can defer these things for a period and then, as they have previously done, go back and pay it all again. That's really only playing smokes and daggers with it." - Dismissing speculation that the Cabinet would defer or reject pay increases recommended by the Review Group on Higher Remuneration, November 2007
"I never condemn wrongdoing in any area . . . Condone! I never condone wrongdoing." - Responding to queries from Green Party leader Trevor Sargent in relation to political donations to Fianna Fáil politicians, February 2006
"All that we're trying to do is clean up the past." - Explaining the motivation for setting up the Flood tribunal, October 1997
"I think every opinion poll is just a snapshot of events at any particular time." - November 2000
"I am one of the few socialists left in Irish politics." - November 2004
"It is not correct . . . if I said so, I was not correct . . . I can't recall if I did say it . . . if I did say it, I didn't mean to say it . . . that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon tribunal. That is not what Revenue said. Revenue said that they were part of the normal process with these issues." - Clarifying a previous statement that his tax issues could not be dealt with until the Mahon tribunal had reported, January 2008