"It would look as if previous Irish prime ministers weren't very rich when banks had to make these decisions to write off all this money for them", the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, joked last night.
Asked to comment on bank debts which had been written off for two of his predecessors, Mr Charles Haughey and Dr Garret FitzGerald, Mr Ahern insisted that write-offs in the banking world were "a normal practice".
The Taoiseach, who was speaking at the official residence of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mr Wim Kok, nevertheless conceded that the public would take a cynical view of the writing off of such huge amounts of money.
"I think, in terms of money that is written off by banks, these are commercial decisions made by the banks for many people and not just former politicians", the Taoiseach added.
Mr Ahern was in the Netherlands for bilateral discussions on Agenda 2000.