The Taoiseach is afraid to admit he was wrong to accept the £8,000 sterling payment he received at a public speaking engagement in Manchester in 1994 the Opposition said in the Dáil today.
"When you put your hand on the money as Minister for Finance you were wrong." Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said.
Mr Kenny said: "I thought the culture of old FF was gone but it seems to be back again.
He asked: "Why was it wrong to accept a whiparound in Dublin but right in Manchester?
"Was it because it was taxable in Dublin and not in Manchester?"
Mr Kenny said today is a "bad day for accountability and a good day for cynicism and hypocrisy"
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said "one would have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe the Taoiseach".
He said: "In normal life you get gifts from friends and loans from strangers but in Mr Ahern's life it is the opposite.
"If anything demonstrates the need to change the government it is the media parade of government ministers blind to standards defending the indefensible"
Trevor Sargent of the Green Party said that the Taoiseach had "transgressed standards that would have to be followed in Scandanavia, Germany, the UK, the USA and other developed countries".
Mr Sargent said that he "can't allow cynicism about the democratic process to grow" before adding that if he was in the Taosieach's position he would have no option but to resign.
Mr Sargent also criticisted the Progressive Democrats by saying they "have shown themselves to be more interested in clinign g to power than standards in public office."
Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that "if the Manchester payments were morally wrong were not the decisions of the Government also morally wrong."
"This Taoiseach, this Tánaiste and this Government should be thrown out of government" he said.
Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said that the stance taken by Fianna Fáil ministers in defending the Taoiseach is one of defending the sleaze, chronyism and corruption that pervaded Irish politics in the 80s and 90s.