17 Bertie Ahern Quotes on Politics

Bertie Ahern quotes on politics

1. 'This is a day we should treasure - a day when agreement and accommodation have replaced days of difference and division.' (April 11, 1998 - the day the Good Friday Agreement was signed)

2. 'I'm one of the last socialists left in Irish politics.' (December, 2004)

3. 'It's all smokes and daggers'( commenting on the media's apparent conspiracy to discredit him)

5. 'I've looked up every tree in north Dublin.' (speaking of his investigations into Ray Burke's past)

6. 'We are not going to apologise for any small role we may have played in helping to remove a dictator who made his people suffer for 20 years, carried out horrific acts and didn't care about democracy. He is gone now, and thank God for that.' (May 2003 - speaking of the war in Iraq and the use of Shannon Airport for US military stopovers)

7. 'We were always dead against the war.' (December 2003)

8. 'To the people of Europe who are joining us today in the European Union I extend the hand of friendship...Today marks the triumph of your determination and perseverance over the legacy of history. For Europe, today marks the closure of one chapter and the opening of another new and exciting chapter in its long history.' (1 May 2004 - European Union enlargement)

9. 'What they were up to in those days were kept for the future. I'm not sure I know how legal it was...but anyway...ha ha ha.' (March 15, 2005 - Visiting the Tipperary Hill Irish neighbourhood in Syracuse, New York)

10. 'Throwing white elephants and red herrings at each other.' (a warning he used in the Dail once).

12. 'I never condemn wrongdoing in any area.' (22 February 2006 in the Dail)

13. 'I never condone wrongdoing in any area' (22 February 2006 in the Dail) (Ahern corrected his slip, above, during the same dialogue.[2])

14. Speaking on Ray Burke (who was subsequently jailed for six months for tax evasion) after Burke's resignation; I always found him to be a proud honourable man, loyal and true, persevering and principled, caring and committed but tough and a person who often lost friends very easily. On behalf of the Government and particularly on behalf of the Fianna Fail Party, I thank him for his distinguished years in the service of his constituents and his country.[3]

15. 'The public are entitled to have an absolute guarantee of the financial probity and integrity of their elected representatives, their officials and above all of Ministers. They need to know that they are under financial obligations to nobody.' (Dail Eireann transcript, December 1996)

16. 'It is quite unacceptable that a member of Dail Eireann and in particular a Cabinet Minister and Taoiseach, should be supported in his personal lifestyle by gifts made to him personally.' (Dail Eireann transcript, September 1997)

17. 'I'm not answering what I got for my Holy Communion money, my Confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else, I'm not into that.' (21 September 2006 responding to questions relating to a leak from The Mahon Tribunal that they would investigate payments he received in 1993.)

20. 'It was a political donation for my personal use.' 21 February 2008 at the Mahon Tribunal, referring to a ?5000 donation.[3]

21. Ahern has had his speaking style described as 'Bertispeak 'It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct -- I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it -- ' [6]