Fianna Faíl views: Current and former Fianna Fáil ministers were resolute in their support for the Taoiseach at the weekend, although none would say whether Mr Ahern had been right or wrong to accept payments from a group of Manchester businessmen in 1993.
Yesterday evening Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey said he was not in a position to say whether Mr Ahern had been right or wrong when he accepted the £8,000 following a dinner in Manchester in the autumn of 1993 when he was minister for finance.
"I haven't all of the facts, I haven't all of the information, and I'm not going to make a judgment until I have all that," he said during an interview on TV3's The Political Party.
Asked by presenter Ursula Halligan whether he was holding his judgment, Mr Dempsey said: "I'm absolutely certain that the Taoiseach on Tuesday will be able to clarify all of those matters in so far as it is humanly possible, it is 13 or 14 years ago." However he refused to say whether he had ever received a similar "dig-out".
"I'm not going to answer a question like that," he said. "I'm not going to answer it. It's not that I can't answer it, but I'm not going to get involved in answering a question that has no relevance to what you brought me on for."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said that the Manchester payment had to be seen in the context of Mr Ahern's financial position following his separation, since he had lost all of his savings and "his house".
However, asked whether he would have taken or accepted money for his personal use in a similar way to the Taoiseach, the Minister said he would not but that he had never been in the circumstances that Bertie Ahern had found himself in in 1993.
"It was the context in which Bertie Ahern found himself at that time. I can't put myself into a person's situation. . . I would not do it and I'm lucky enough that I haven't been able to do it." Mr Ahern also said that "nobody in Leinster House can hold a candle to the Taoiseach in relation to being leader of the country".
He added: "We have to have a sense of proportionality in relation to this." Mr Ahern also indicated that the Taoiseach would also address the latest revelation that one of the cheques he received in 1993 and 1994 as loans from friends actually came from the business account of a stockbroking firm.
"That's an issue that's just come up overnight and it's an issue that the Taoiseach will be dealing with on Tuesday," he said.
The comments this weekend are in addition to those of Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, who moved last Friday to express his strong support for the Taoiseach and suggested there had been "a frenzy" surrounding the payments to Mr Ahern.
However he was unable to say whether Mr Ahern had been right to take what has now become known as the Manchester money.
Asked three times on RTÉ news on Friday whether the Taoiseach had been right to take the money, Mr Cowen responded: "He was not incorrect in taking it on the basis on which it was given - solidarity from people at a time when it was a difficult personal period for him. That was the situation. People understand it."
Mr Cowen said there were no tax or ethics issues relating to the payments and that the Taoiseach would deal with it in full during the debate in the Dáil next Tuesday.
Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan also said last night that the Taoiseach had his full support, and that the Government wanted to continue in coalition with the Progressive Democrats.
"I believe there is solidarity with him and for him among all of the ministers and I am convinced that our colleagues in Government are anxious to continue with the Programme for Government," he said. "They've made that clear and we will work with them and work out the Government's term."
Last Thursday Mr Lenihan said that he would not have taken money for personal use at such a function. "The Taoiseach has not in any way abused public office. The Taoiseach has not enriched himself as a result of his engagement in politics."
However, Mr Cowen acknowledged that taking money in such circumstances would be inappropriate now.
Yesterday Seanad Leader Mary O'Rourke, who was a government minister in the early 1990s, also said she would not have taken money.
However, she said it was "very disingenuous" of people to ask this question of other office-holders. "We're talking about a different context. I wasn't in the same circumstances the Taoiseach found himself."
Despite the expressions of loyalty, there is believed to be frustration among some Fianna Fáil ministers about the handling of the controversy, which has left them with no option but to defend the fact the Taoiseach had taken money, at a time when Mr Ahern is likely to say that he regrets accepting it, when he speaks in the Dail on Tuesday.