Taoiseach admits to receiving payments

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to face further questioning after he admitted to receiving payments while acting as Finance Minister in the early 90's.

Mr Ahern said he borrowed around $63,000 (£33,000) to pay costs during his marital separation and added that the money, which he received in 1993, and again in 1994, went towards paying school fees for his children as part of the settlement arrangements with his estranged wife Miriam Kelly.

During a television interview on RTE last night, the Irish Prime Minister revealed that he had received the money from 12 personal friends, however when he tried to pay them back, they had refused to accept.

Speaking during the interview, Mr Ahern said: "I have broken absolutely no codes - ethical, tax, legal or otherwise."

News of the loans was leaked from confidential meetings between Mr Ahern and a state inquiry investigating planning irregularities in the Irish capital, Dublin, in the 1990s.

Commenting on the leak, which he said was "scurrilous" Mr Ahern said: "It was done to damage me. I suppose those people who set out in a calculated way to do that, whoever they were, probably have succeeded to some extent."

Today, opposition leaders are using the first day of the new Dail parliament term to establish if Mr Ahern has ethical or tax obligations to address.

Earlier, Labour party leader Pat Rabbitte said: "The big question for Mr Ahern is how he can accept a large amount of money 13 years ago, didn't make any repayments on it, or discharge any interest since, and say that that's a loan. To anybody in the street, that's a gift and should be liable for tax."

Deputy premier and Progressive Democratics leader Michael McDowell added that it was a grave situation for the Taoiseach, and that he had further questions to answer about the payments.

(EF/SP)