Getting the fax straight

The IDA availed of Bertie Ahern's recent visit to New York to host a dinner at whichUS investors, existing and potential, could…

The IDA availed of Bertie Ahern's recent visit to New York to host a dinner at whichUS investors, existing and potential, could meet the Taoiseach. The proposed invitation was faxed from Bertie's office in Dublin. It read: "The Irish Prime Minister, Mr Bertie Ahern, cordially invites X to dinner etc, etc."

Word came from Dublin to New York that the invitation would have to be changed to: "The Irish Prime Minister, Mr Bertie Ahern, and Ms Celia Larkin cordially invite etc, etc."

A further instruction followed. Several New Yorkbased Friends of Fianna Fail were to be invited to the taxpayer-funded dinner. The IDA was puzzled by how many of them had Italian, rather than Irish names. It was annoyed that Bertie insisted they should be seated close to his table, leaving the investors - for whom the dinner was intended - some distance away from the place of honour.