Ahern faces expulsion over probe

A VOTE to expel Ireland’s former premier Bertie Ahern from his party is the only route open to colleagues after a corruption inquiry found he lied about secret cash payments, it was claimed yesterday.

Fianna Fail leader Micheàl Martin said evidence showed Mr Ahern’s behaviour fell short of the standard public officials should uphold.

The 15-year Mahon tribunal, whose findings were released on Thursday, did not brand the leader of three coalition governments corrupt, but refused to accept his explanations for around £175,000 he had deposited in banks in the early 1990s.

Mr Martin said: “The findings of the tribunal, that the explanations it was given were untrue and the amounts involved are very serious, cannot be ignored.

“No matter how high a member rises within the party and in elected office, they still carry a duty of trust for the members of Fianna Fail and for the people who elected them.”

Mr Ahern’s fate will be decided next Friday in a special vote by the party’s national executive.

But Mr Martin rejected Judge Alan Mahon’s claim Mr Ahern’s cabinet colleagues had tried to undermine the inquiry. One minister, Dick Roche, dismissed the probe as voyeurism, while Mr Martin said it was “bizarre”.