The Opposition last night stepped up pressure on the Taoiseach to come up with a more detailed explanation of the payments made to him when he was minister for finance in 1993, which are currently being investigated by the Mahon tribunal.
Fine Gael, which had initially responded cautiously to the disclosure of the payments in yesterday's Irish Times, last night joined Labour and the Green Party in demanding a full explanation.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that to remove any perception of impropriety the Taoiseach should make a full statement detailing who he received the money from and how much it came to. Mr Kenny cited the warning issued by the McCracken tribunal of 1997 about senior politicians receiving personal gifts from businessmen.
Bertie Ahern maintained yesterday that disclosure of the payments to him was an "unfair, unjust leak". Questioned by reporters during a constituency visit to Clare yesterday, the Taoiseach said claims that he had received €50,000 to €100,000 from a group of friends, including businessman David McKenna, were "off the wall".
"I'm not answering what I got for my holy communion money, my confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else, I'm not into that, I gave all the details of everything to do with my life to the tribunal but I'm not under investigation for any of these things, including the unjust and unfair leak that's in the papers this morning."
Asked if he had paid tax on the amounts, Mr Ahern said he had "dealt properly" with any payments. "I would say nobody, nobody has given as much details and co-operation to tribunals, over several years and then for somebody just to take one particular issue out of an issue is just unjust. And I gave all the information about my separation case and all the information about my legal fees and how I funded everything but they're personal matters," he said.
Tánaiste Michael McDowell, maintained the revelations would not threaten the stability of the Coalition. "I have no comment whatsoever to make on a leak as to what the tribunal is or is not doing in relation to a personal matter in relation to the Taoiseach. I don't propose to make any comment whatsoever," he said.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said last night that the Taoiseach's failure to provide a full explanation was potentially damaging to the office of the Taoiseach. "Today the Taoiseach confirmed the substance of an Irish Times report that he received personal payments from prominent businessmen. However, the Taoiseach has not provided a full explanation for these events and his failure to do so is potentially damaging to the office of the Taoiseach and the reputation of politics.
"To avoid any suggestion of impropriety the Taoiseach should make a more complete statement regarding the amounts of money received and the donor or donors involved." Mr O'Dowd pointed out that in September 1997 the Taoiseach had endorsed the McCracken tribunal's strictures about the dangers involved in senior politicians receiving personal gifts from prominent businessmen.
Labour finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton said The Irish Times report had raised a number of potentially serious issues for the Taoiseach to clarify.
"In 1996 Deputy Michael Lowry resigned from government following the disclosure that a multi-millionaire had paid for building work on his house. In this case the allegation appears to be that a multi-millionaire paid for legal bills incurred by Mr Ahern in the early 1990s," she said.
"These allegations must be treated with some caution as we know that claims made in regard to payments to Mr Ahern in the past proved to be unfounded.
"However, notwithstanding that and also conscious of Mr Ahern's obligations to the Mahon tribunal, I believe that it would be helpful if the Taoiseach now made a statement clarifying whether or not such payments were made and, if so, the purposes of the payments."