TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern has said he may respond later this week to the new disclosures that emerged at the Mahon tribunal about sterling lodgements to his building society account. HARRY McGEE, Political Staff, and JOHN DOWNESreport. .
It came as his brother, Junior Minister Noel Ahern, gave an indication of how the Taoiseach may explain the £15,500 sterling lodged by his former secretary Gráinne Carruth to his account in 1994.
Noel Ahern, Minister with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works, said yesterday: "Fifteen thousand is no big deal. There might be a very simple explanation. I understand he may have given the wrong details for a wrong lodgement."
The Taoiseach made his first public appearance yesterday since Ms Carruth gave evidence at the tribunal last week. He attended the State ceremony at the GPO in Dublin to mark the 92nd anniversary of the Easter Rising with President Mary McAleese and Defence Minister Willie O'Dea.
As he left the ceremony, Mr Ahern was asked if he would wait until his next appearance at the tribunal (in May) to respond to the latest disclosure. He replied: "Or sometime during the week, maybe," suggesting a possible response in the coming days.
The latest controversy arose when Ms Carruth changed previous evidence she gave to the inquiry last December and accepted that she made sterling lodgements to Mr Ahern's Irish Permanent Building Society account in Drumcondra, Dublin, in 1994.
Noel Ahern was one of three Fianna Fáil Junior Ministers who responded to the controversy yesterday. He strongly disagreed with suggestions that the sterling lodgements were particularly large: "There's nothing special about the amount," he said.
He and European Minister Dick Roche both dismissed reports that serious doubts now surround Bertie Ahern's long-term survival as leader. Mr Roche said the Taoiseach enjoyed the full parliamentary party support.
In contrast, a third Junior Minister, Pat Carey, yesterday said that the evidence last week "in itself and of itself has been quite disturbing".
Mr Carey, speaking on RTÉ's Marian Finucane Show, qualified his comments by saying that people must wait until all the evidence is heard before making a judgment. He said that tribunal counsel Des O'Neill had treated Ms Carruth sensitively.
His assessment differed from that of Noel Ahern, who contended that Ms Carruth had been "treated disgracefully" by the tribunal and by elements of the media. Speaking on Newstalk's The Wide Angle, he said: "There are rules about harassment and bullying in the workplace. Then it seems that some of the media were dancing on her grave."
He added: "The way it came across to me is that she was badly treated. Is it the tribunal or the spin that was put on it?" He said the notion that his brother was to blame for her distress was "ludicrous".
Noel Ahern also insisted there was no great mystery about Bertie Ahern dealing in sterling. "Sterling is not the currency of the devil. It's the routine currency that's used 60 miles up the road. Sixty million people on the island off our shore are using it.
"Suddenly this notion that if you touch sterling you need to have your hands washed, that's ridiculous. Anybody who is back and forth to England will use sterling all the time. Certainly he would have no recollection of a sterling cheque," he said.
He added: "Bertie's problems are . . . trying to work back through all the lodgements. Okay, he might have got it wrong in one particular . . . in this one. I don't know."
Noel Ahern also said that his brother may have made a mistake, similar to the one made by Tony Blair, by saying he would step down before the next election.