Ahern tells Dáil he has 'served State honestly'

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has told the Dáil he has been the victim of "political smear" and insisted he had done nothing wrong in accepting loans of €50,000 in 1993 and 1994.

Responding to questions from the Opposition leaders in the Dail today, Mr Ahern said: "Of course it can be made look wrong, as the carefully calculated leak a week before the Dail comes back to put me into the position that they put me into. But it wasn't wrong."

Mr Ahern was responding to questions from the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who challenged Mr Ahern to say if he believed the donations were right or wrong.

"It's not simply a matter of ethics or morality or codes or legislation. It's a fundamental principle: the simple issue of right and wrong. It's what we try to teach our children, the difference between right and wrong," Mr Kenny said.

In a televised interview last night, Mr Ahern admitted he had not repaid the monies received in two tranches from 12 businessmen, whom he described as close friends. He said the payments were loans, not gifts, despite not having paid any of them back, or paid any of the interest.

In the Dáil today, Mr Ahern said he had been the victim of a "scurrilous leak" of information supplied by him to the Planning tribunal in confidence.

He told the House: "Never in all the time that I have served in public life have I taken a bribe or in any way put my personal interest ahead of the public good. I have served the State honestly and I defy anybody to prove otherwise."

"For many years I have endured all sorts of false allegations that have proven to be false. Perhaps this is part of the price you pay for the honour of standing here as taoiseach and serving in Government."

Mr Ahern says the loaned money was used to settle bills arising from his separation from his wife Miriam in 1993, including legal bills. He was minister for finance at the time. Mr Ahern insisted the loan did not amount to "corruption". There were "no favours sought, no favours given," he said.

However, he says he had not yet repaid the money. "I haven't paid the money because they refused to take it. I think they will now because they see the difficulties it created but I offered a number of times to repay it," he said.

Mr Ahern said he fully intends to return the funds, adding that he regarded the loans as a "debt of honour". "My advice is I've broken absolutely no codes, ethical, tax, legal or otherwise," he said.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny asked Mr Ahern in the Dail: "How is it that you are prepared to apply one standard to others but apply a different standard to yourself?"

Mr Kenny also criticised the PD leader and Tanaiste Michael McDowell for his lack of response almost 24 hours after Mr Ahern's admissions. "And from you Tanaiste, the silence is deafening," Mr Kenny said.

Mr McDowell is due to discuss the issue with his Progressive Democrats party after 6pm and may make a statement afterwards.

Mr Ahern replied: "I have never dishonoured any office in my responsibility. I will be the first to admit that I made mistakes in my life and my career, one mistake I never made and will never make is to enrich myself by misusing or abusing the trust the people of this nation have placed in me."

Mr Ahern said he "accept them, they were loans, given in good faith to be of assistance to me. If you had asked me was it today, after all that has happened over the years, and I was in a similar position the answer was probably no. No, not probably, No."

Mr Ahern said the reality was "they put pressure on me to accept these and I did. I only accepted them as loans with interest."

The Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said: "Let's have a little less of the common man. It's a long time since you were a common man. There's no point in comparing yourself to the man on Hill 16 who got into a bit of trouble and got a whip around."