ATTACK ON MAHON:THE MAHON tribunal's treatment of his former secretary, Gráinne Carruth, had been "appalling" and "low-life stuff", Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.
Mr Ahern's harshly-worded criticism came at the end of a 12-minute interview with journalists following a speech in University College Dublin to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement.
Asked if he would be able to deal with apparent conflicts in his tribunal testimony when he next appears before Mahon on a date to be arranged on, or after May 20th, Mr Ahern said he would have "no problems" doing so.
However, he then went on: "The only regret I have about that to be honest, I don't want to say too much about it, [ but] I do feel very sorry the way Gráinne Carruth was dealt with. That was just appalling.
"It was totally unnecessary. Talk about how not to do something, but anyway that's how it is."
Asked why it was appalling, he replied: "The way she was harangued. There was no need to harangue her. She just didn't remember something.
"I mean, there was no, she was concealing nothing. She was a mother of three, hauling her back on Holy Thursday. It's just low-life stuff."
Asked if he was referring to Mahon when he spoke about "an unfair chamber" in the Dáil on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said:
"It was the planning tribunal. I don't want anyone to misconstrue that. It wasn't yourselves. Not a chance. If it was the media I would've said that. It was good to talk to you and thanks for everything."
However, Fine Gael last night said the language used by Mr Ahern against Mahon was "entirely inappropriate and unacceptable", and suggested that he was suffering "from a delayed sense of guilt over the way he left his former secretary to defend the indefensible regarding his sterling lodgements".
Senator Eugene Regan of Fine Gael said: "It must be remembered that Bertie Ahern had full knowledge and sight of the documentary evidence that confirmed the sterling lodgements to his accounts weeks before Gráinne Carruth was forced to try and explain Mr Ahern's untruthful testimony. The tribunal in questioning Gráinne Carruth was merely testing her evidence, and by extension that of the Taoiseach, that payments amounting to £15,500 were sterling payments rather than salary cheques as Mr Ahern claimed under oath. The Taoiseach is responsible for putting Gráinne Carruth in the position in which she was placed.
"The tribunal conducted the questioning of her in a sensitive and entirely appropriate manner. The latest outburst of Mr Ahern is consistent with the constant efforts of this Government to criticise, discredit and undermine the work of the tribunal," he said.
Mr Ahern could have prevented Ms Carruth from having "to defend his inexplicable evidence", but "he chose to let her take the hits on his behalf instead and today we are witnessing his delayed sense of guilt because of his own actions," Mr Regan said.