“I can’t recall if I did say it..”
On January 22, 2008, as he returned to Dublin from a trip to South Africa during which he had traded insults with Enda Kenny – and he had accused the Fine Gael leader of telling a “bare-faced lie” – Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told reporters
“The issue here is very simple. In tax law the application certificate and the tax clearance certificate are the same in law. The position taken by the Revenue is that they can’t finalise it until Mahon’s work is finished. I mean, that’s fine by me. I have no difficulty with that, I have no difficulty with the Revenue position,” [Bertie Ahern] said. [added emphasis]
Today, Mr Ahern is reported to have changed his mind..
He told the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions: “It is not correct if I said so. I wasn’t correct. I can’t recall if I did say it. But I didn’t mean to say it – that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon tribunal. That is not what Revenue said. Revenue said that they were in part of the normal process dealing with these issues.” [added emphasis]
He looked foolish today. Really foolish. Enda had looked foolish, but he was redeemed today. He was right to keep pushing the subject. Bertie and Fianna Fáil have been allowed to get away in the past on the basis of a smart word and a white lie. Enda’s right to keep pushing the subject. The more he does, the more Bertie has to lie, until the lies keep getting bigger and more foolish looking.
Bertie does look like a liar. What did it finally for me was all this talk about him not having a bank account while he was Minister of Finance (“just like we allow peole to have pink hair we allow people not to have bank accounts”). Very dodgy chap your PM.
slug, I’m with you, but the crazy thing about that was the bare-faced ridiculousness of it all. How can something so ludicrous be let pass without whimper from right think folk? How was he not laughed out of office? How can Fianna Fáil supporters think that that’s a sufficient answer?
Ever watch Killinaskully? Willie Power? It’s the surrealness of it that frightens me. On one other hand I wonder, it must take enormous genius to be able to lie so blatantly and ridiculously and be able to pass it off as normal, even the truth. On the other hand I realise, it’s a national a psychosis. He’s just the current king of it.