Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today he has not considered resigning over the controversy surrounding his personal finances and he again insisted he has "nothing outstanding" with the Revenue Commissioners.
Mr Ahern has faced repeated calls from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore to quit over revelations at the Mahon tribunal and the fact that he has not yet received a tax compliance certificate.
Asked by reporters in Dublin today if he had considered leaving office, Mr Ahern said: "Never. I just got a mandate a few months ago so I have to see that out. Maybe 2012."
On why he has not been able to produce a tax clearance certificate to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), Mr Ahern repeated his recent assertions that he is satisfied he is tax compliant.
Fine Gael this week formally filed a complaint against Mr Ahern with Sipo, claiming he is not tax compliant.
The Taoiseach said he would produce a certificate of application, which was the "same in tax law" as a tax clearance certificate.
"The issue here is very simple. In tax law the application certificate and the tax clearance certificate are the same in law. The position taken by the Revenue is that they can't finalise it until Mahon's work is finished. I mean, that's fine by me. I have no difficulty with that, I have no difficulty with the Revenue position," he said.
"My tax advice, and I think many independent tax advisers have said the same on the airwaves, that there's no difficulty with that position. So the application certificate, I'll submit, and then as soon as the matters are finished I will finalise with Revenue and then I will submit that [the tax clearance certificate]."
Asked if he did not mind waiting the length of time it would take to deal with the issues, Mr Ahern said: "To be frank, the only alternatives you would have is to say to Revenue, 'what is your interpretation of all these things' and they don't even expect me to do that. I made a voluntary disclosure and I think Revenue have accepted that position.
"They have asked me a number of questions, at different times last year. We have comprehensively dealt with them. So there's nothing outstanding between me and Revenue. And I understand Revenue's position. So we will just have to wait until Mahon is finalised. I will submit the application certificate and then when it's finalised I will submit the full tax clearance cert."