Door is open for Bertie to rejoin party – 10 years after he resigned
TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has left the door open to former Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern to rejoin the party.
This is despite the fact that Mr Martin moved to expel Mr Ahern from the party following a report from the Mahon tribunal.
The now-Taoiseach said at the time that ‘the findings of the tribunal constitute conduct unbecoming a member of Fianna Fáil’.
The former taoiseach resigned from the party in 2012 following the Mahon tribunal. The report found that Mr Ahern failed to ‘truthfully account’ for the sources of money he lodged in his bank account when he was finance minister.
At the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday, there were calls from some TDs to readmit Mr Ahern to the party 10 years after his expulsion.
Mr Martin did not rule out the former Taoiseach being admitted back into the party.
He said that he often seeks advice from his predecessor on matters related to Northern Ireland.
‘He is more popular than the Taoiseach’
‘I have been engaging with Bertie Ahern actually over the last year and a bit, since the rows on the Protocol,’ Mr Martin said.
‘He’s very involved in Northern Ireland issues. He maintains contacts with different groups.
‘From my perspective, that level of consultation will continue because I think he has invaluable insights to all of that.’
Mr Martin denied that Mr Ahern was one of his advisers but he does speak to him and often runs into him at sports events. He also denied that Mr Ahern has ever asked him if he could rejoin the party.
‘No-one can take from the contribution he made to peace in Ireland and to the peace process,’ he continued.
‘In the fullness of time, certainly, we will give that consideration.
‘It is ten years on. I am conscious of the contribution that he has made to peace in this country.’
Mr Martin also attempted to downplay suggestions that he was behind Mr Ahern’s downfall, as he insisted that the former taoiseach resigned from the party following the Mahon tribunal.
The Taoiseach also denied that it reflected badly on him and his party that he has to rely on Mr Ahern for advice on Northern Ireland.
‘I’m experienced in Northern Ireland as well. I’ve been a minister of foreign affairs,’ he said. ‘People in Northern Ireland know I am very familiar with the issues on all sides of all parties. [I] would have been a member of the Government as part of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement at the time.’
Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin South West John Lahart, who was at the event with the Taoiseach, said he was open to the idea of seeing Mr Ahern return.
‘We don’t live in a cancel culture,’ he said.
‘I look around at the journalists here and I don’t think there’s one of you that at some stage of your career in the last decade has not sought out Bertie Ahern specifically.
‘There’s no reason why Fianna Fáil should be any different and a lot of this happens under the radar.’
A representative for Mr Ahern’s office said the former taoiseach has ‘no comment’ on the matter.
However, she added that it is true that he is in frequent contact with the Taoiseach and Government departments on matters related to Northern Ireland.
Suggestions that Mr Ahern could rejoin the party have also been warmly welcomed by Fianna Fáil TDs. One TD said that no one they had spoken to was against the idea.
‘He is more popular with the Fianna Fáil core vote than the Taoiseach,’ another said.
Another TD said that ‘in the context of the challenges Brexit has levelled at us and the possibility that a united Ireland is now realisable, I think it appropriate that one of the key architects of the Good Friday Agreement and actors in the peace process would continue to play a role in ensuring the full potential of the peace process is achieved.’