A PROFILE WHICH is full of praise for former taoiseach Bertie Ahern is still live on the Fianna Fáil website despite its former leader having resigned from the party in the wake of the Planning Tribunal findings.
The profile, which appears under the section entitled ‘Fianna Fáil Taoisigh’, makes no mention of the fact that Ahern resigned from the party after the Mahon Tribunal into planning irregularities found that he had lied to the tribunal in his evidence.
Ahern resigned from Fianna Fáil in March following the findings of the Mahon Tribunal and just days before it was expected that he would be expelled from it four years after he finished his 14 years as leader and 11 years as taoiseach.
The profile on the website notes that as Minister for Labour in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Ahern established “his reputation as a peacemaker in industrial relations and as a consensus politician”.
Further down the profile says that under Ahern’s leadership “the Celtic Tiger came to fruition, a rapid and sustained period of economic growth with the best growth rates in the European Union, low inflation, low interest rates, record employment and inward investment”.
The profile says that it was “no surprise” that Fianna Fáil returned to government under Ahern’s leadership at the 2002 general election and goes on to describe his “finest achievement” in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement.
Though he was in office until 2008, the profile does not go beyond 2004 in listing Ahern’s achievements instead focusing on that year as the one Ireland held the EU presidency, a “major success” in which Ahern and his government oversaw the accession of ten new member states, the profile states.
A party source told TheJournal.ie that the profile is a “historical piece” on the Fianna Fáil website and it is unlikely to be updated despite the revelations from the Mahon Tribunal report.
However despite his Fianna Fáil profile remaining intact, Ahern’s website, The Office of Bertie Ahern, is no longer in existence it would appear.
The website - www.bertieahernoffice.org - listed details including a contact address for the Ahern when he was based in St Luke’s in Drumcondra, north Dublin
The former constituency office, which became his power base during his time in government, was taken back by the party following the Mahon Tribunal findings and Ahern has since reportedly moved into a new office in the Drumcondra Business Centre.
A similar piece for former taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Charles Haughey also makes no reference to his involvement in the Arms Crisis in the 1970s nor the revelations that emerged from the McCracken and Moriarty Tribunals in the late 1990s.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say