Results 6,001-6,020 of 10,459 for speaker:Bertie Ahern

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not believe it was an issue for the Progressive Democrats in 1993 and 1994. I was in coalition government with the Labour Party at that time.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: As I said to my former colleagues who were in government with me at the time, it applies to them too, my apologies for that.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I say to Deputy Higgins again, I did not take and neither will I ever say I took it from business people. I accepted a loan that I paid back with interest. I received €38,000 — a loan from friends — and paid back more than €90,000. I accepted it from them because they were friends and I paid it back to them because they were friends. It was in that capacity that I got it.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It was not because of anything else. There have been efforts to make them into business people who came together. They were long and trusted friends of mine for many decades. The issue of savings arose because of completeness. When I was giving the interview I gave the facts. There was no one sum of £50,000, but in my accounts and when I answered all my questions I showed where all my...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: While these were loans with interest, I paid them back. If I had thought that any of these issues would create this amount of conflict or fuss, it would have been far easier for me to pay it back on a bank loan. However, friends were friends and they tried to be helpful. They meant well. Ultimately it got me into more trouble than it was worth. However, I paid it back.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I do not accept that I was found out. I do not consider accepting genuine loans and paying back genuine interest is being found out.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: These allegations are made against me because I am uachtarán Fianna Fáil and Taoiseach. If every Member of the House had to deal with the same allegations and needed to go through all their bank accounts over a prolonged period and match up everything——

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The Deputy should ask her leader to ask the question and I will answer it.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I am sure Deputy Higgins, like everybody else, would have heard a number of my friends, particularly Mr. Charlie Chawke, who gave a number of interviews, make it very clear that I had offered to pay back these loans a number of times, which I had done. That was made very clear. I said in my opening statement that I would probably know all the people at that function in Manchester but I...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: By Monday morning, about 35 people had said they were at functions. Clearly, some were talking about charity and other functions, so I cannot pin them down exactly.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: If Deputy Joe Higgins is insinuating that I took money from Slab Murphy, I never took money from Slab Murphy.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: With regard to gift tax, I was making the point that, in respect of capital gains tax, income tax and gift tax, I paid them whenever they were due. They were relevant to other issues rather than these ones, but I have paid capital gains tax and gift tax.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: No, I never used the tax amnesty.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: No, I am not. What I stated with regard to a fundraising event being organised with the sole purpose of raising money for my personal use was that it was something I would not accept. When it was put to me that my friends would do that, I said, no, I would not have that, and it was on that basis that I then said I would only accept it as loans. The Manchester function was not organised on...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: It was not organised to do so. People there who know me well gave me a donation afterwards, but it is not the same thing. It was not organised for that purpose. As the Deputy will see if he examines the Government procedures, with which he is familiar, it was crystal clear at that stage, even though there were no formal guidelines on such issues for Ministers, and in the 1995 legislation...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: In answer to Deputy Bruton's question of whether I am making a new explanation on the other money, I am not. I linked them in the television programme, on which I did not have all day and obviously could not go into detail, because they were linked anyway. It was not a new explanation and I linked them from the start. I have said it was a misjudgment and an error in terms of looking back...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: The person who gave me the money in Manchester was Tim Kilroe and he is the only one I know to have given me money there. I do not know from whom Mr. Kilroe collected money.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: A number of people, maybe 33 or 34 instead of 35, have said they know me and think they met me at that function. They did not say they gave me money.

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: They rang me because they heard there was an issue about functions, but the problem is that neither they nor I can be sure, 12 years on, whether it was that function. The Deputy will be aware that I am well known in Manchester. I have attended functions there for the better part of 30 years, as a councillor, backbencher, Front Bencher, Minister, Minister of State, Leader of the Opposition...

Leaders' Questions (3 Oct 2006)

Bertie Ahern: I have close contacts with them. Deputy Gilmore asked me a fair question. I have tried as best I could, for the years requested by the tribunals and to prove my innocence in respect of all these other issues, to link all my payments and would have done that for the vast majority. The very few I was unable to link were because I was not able to get bank records. In so far as I have been...