Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Everyone in the Chamber has experience of forgetting matters or of having only partial recollection of important events in their lives. Through the process of discussion and the revelation of other facts, new memories and recollections come to the fore. To err in one's recollection is normal and honest. The essential facts of the transactions which have been the subject of the tribunal inquiries are clear. The expenditure of the amounts in question in respect of the refurbishment and purchase of my house have also been corroborated. No alternative suggestion has been made and none can be made as to the source of these payments or any other context in which they might have been paid. That is because there was none. Only the determination by my political foes to stretch the available evidence with malign intention can put a sinister construction on events which, however unorthodox to some, were truthfully described in my sworn evidence.

I find somewhat distasteful an obsession with the minutiae of my life. Perhaps I should not be surprised.

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