Taoiseach regrets adopting 'daft' tribunal model

TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern yesterday described the system of tribunals as "a daft model" and said he was wrong to adopt it when he entered Government.

This followed comments on Sunday when he told Sky News that the 1921 Act providing for tribunals was "a load of nonsense, and it is a recipe for more nonsense".

He said that the 1921 Act should be abolished and he compared the lengthy Mahon tribunal to the inquest into the death of Princess Diana.

Yesterday, Mr Ahern agreed that he was not the best one to talk about the future of tribunals because he was involved in one, but said he had been asked the question and had answered it.

He said he was not responsible for introducing the tribunal model as it was part of the 1921 Act, but he agreed that he had adopted the model as head of Government.

"I readily agree - if you want me to accept I was wrong - it was a daft model to adopt.

"It was a terrible thing to do. We shouldn't have adopted it," Mr Ahern said.

The leader designate of Fianna Fáil, Brian Cowen, and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan, yesterday defended the Taoiseach's criticisms of the Mahon tribunal on Sunday.

Mr Cowen, who will succeed Mr Ahern as taoiseach on May 7th, said a series of tribunals had been ongoing for some time.

Echoing Mr Ahern's comments on the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1921, the Minister for Finance said: "These are meant to be dealing with matters of urgent public importance. And obviously dealing with matters of urgent public importance, [ the public] did not contemplate that they would be going on for 11 years."

Mr Brennan said that Mr Ahern had been fully within his rights to make critical comments.

"You could look at what he has been through and he has been through some tough times. Therefore he is entitled to take a view that he might feel a bit sore; I think that it's human nature," Mr Brennan told reporters.

Mr Ahern admitted in the Sky News interview that he had made some mistakes regarding the handling of his personal finances when he was the minister for finance.

He told Sky political editor Adam Boulton: "If you had ever thought that somebody was going to go back over and investigate these things, painstakingly and do it in public session . . . then you would have kept your bus tickets and your stamps." He added: "And if you bought an apple, you would have got a receipt for it."

Criticising the fact that the tribunals had gone on for so long, Mr Ahern told Sky News he had been dealing with "an allegation made by an individual that another individual had told him that, back in '89, they had given me money.

"In fact, he never gave me a glass of water, thankfully."