Dermot Ahern: Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday he was "absolutely" confident the Taoiseach would survive the current payments controversy. The Minister was speaking to journalists during a visit to New York where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly.
"Are we becoming that puritanical now, in Irish society, that we can't have a few friends to give us a hand when we're in financial difficulty?" he said. "Is it any wonder we're having difficulty getting people to go into politics when you see the difficulties that they have to put up with and the complete opening-up of their own personal circumstances?"
He continued: "We are all human beings. I wouldn't like to have to do what the Taoiseach did yesterday [ in his RTÉ interview] but he did it, because he felt he had to do it in the tribunal, in order to clear any imputation against him. It wasn't his doing that it got out, but once it got out, he had to deal with it in the way he did. I think he deserves great credit for that."
The Minister defended the Taoiseach's decision to speak about the matter in advance of the resumption of the Dáil. "The thing was going on for a good couple of days and it was really corroding the situation and I think he was correct in going out earlier than the Dáil," he said.
"I feel very sorry for him that he has had to do that because I know him a long time and, in my view, there is not a more honourable person in Leinster House than Bertie Ahern. I have never seen him want self-enhancement or a lavish lifestyle."
Asked about his own leadership ambitions, the Minister said, "That's not on the agenda as far as I'm concerned. I hope Bertie Ahern stays as leader of my party for a long, long time. I think he's been excellent to my party."