A GOVERNMENT spokesman has rejected suggestions that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern criticised his successor, Brian Cowen, in an interview on the Tubridy Show on RTÉ radio on Wednesday.
The spokesman maintained that Mr Ahern had actually indicated he would have handled the crisis in the State’s finances in the way the Government was now doing.
“If you listen to what Mr Ahern said it is quite obvious that he was not being critical of the Taoiseach or the Government in any way. What he was actually saying was that if he was in Brian Cowen’s position he would be acting in precisely the same way,” said the Government spokesman.
During the interview, Mr Ahern was asked about the current economic slowdown and denied that he had been the cause of it.
“People say that I caused it, don’t they? That’s wrong and to be honest with you it never would have happened.
“Well, I would have dug us out of it. That’s always the challenge. I did that a few times in my life.
“These things happen, international circumstances cause things to happen and what you have to do is take those and work your way out of it, and I have no doubt that is what the Taoiseach and my colleagues will do now,” added Mr Ahern.
“You just have to work hard and knuckle down to it. If you do that and make the right decisions, take good advice, take good counsel, you can work yourself through it.”
The former taoiseach said that in September he would be back in the international arena with other retired leaders like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
