Bertie Ahern will not face an ethics inquiry over loans and gifts he received in the early 1990s from Manchester businessmen and friends in Dublin, the Standards in Public Office Commission has ruled.
Mr Ahern claims that he was given £8,000 sterling by Manchester businessmen, and nearly £50,000 Irish pounds by two groups of friends in Dublin as a loan in late 1993 and early 1994.
However, the Commission, which published its annual report today, said the Ethics in Public Office Act was not in place at the time the monies were paid, and loans are, in any event, completely outside of its remit.
Mr Ahern claims that the so-called "dig out" payments from Dublin-based friends were loans, even though no interest was ever paid on them until their existence was discovered by the Mahon Tribunal.
He claimed that he had made several attempts to pay back the monies, but his friends refused to accept it, though he eventually paid back €90,000 – computed using a 5 per cent interest rate.
"Having considered all the material available to it, the Standards Commission concluded that the complaints did not warrant the initiation of an investigation as the payments were either made before the enactment of the relevant legislation, were outside the scope of the legislation or there was no evidence of any breach of the requirements of the legislation," said the Commission.
Meanwhile, former Cabinet minister, Frank Fahey received equally good news today when the Commission rejected complaints made by former Green Party leader, Trevor Sargent about his conduct in office.
Mr Sargent had been angered by the discovery that the majority of a State compensation fund designed to help fishermen whose trawlers have sunk went to fishermen from his Galway West constituency during his time in office.
In addition, Mr Sargent was unhappy about Mr Fahey's handling of the Shell Corrib pipeline controversy and his support for the construction of the Donegal-based MV Atlantic Dawn, which was given half of Ireland's mackerel quota by Mr Fahey.
"The Standards Commission decided that on the basis of the evidence before it, there was no prima facie case against Deputy Fahey and no basis on which it might initiate an investigation into two of the matters. In relation to a third issue, as the Minister later disclosed his interest in an apartment in Daytona Beach, Florida, the Standards Commission decided not to pursue the matter further," he said.
Meanwhile, the Commission once again complained about the transparency of Irish election funding after it emerged that political parties spent over €11m to run their campaigns – yet just over €500,000 was received from identifiable donors.
