Irish Pm Says Sorry Over Payments Scandal

The Irish prime minister, Berite Ahern, today apologised to Ireland's parliament for taking secret payments from businessmen when finance minister in the early nineties.

Mr Ahern told Dail Eireann that accepting the funds "was in error, it was a misjudgment, although not in breach of any law or code of conduct".

He has come under relentless pressure after admitting he had accepted £8,000 (€11,800) from Irish businessmen for a speaking engagement at the Marriott Hotel, Manchester, in September 1994.

The revelation followed an earlier admission that he had taken a loan from business friends.

Mr Ahern told MPs the money had been given to him to help him recover from a costly separation settlement with his wife in 1993.

"I now regret those choices I made in dark times," he said. He offered an apology to the parliament, his family and the Irish people.

Members of Mr Ahern's ruling Fianna Fail party applauded the 15-minute statement, but opposition leaders immediately resumed their verbal attacks.

Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, said: "This is supposed to be accountability day...this Taoiseach is still the great evader, still the great evader."

Mr Ahern - nicknamed the Teflon taoiseach - has avoided the scandals that have undermined the reputation of Fianna Fail contemporaries such as Charles Haughey.

His admissions triggered an unprecedented leadership crisis and rocked the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats coalition.

The government had already been under fire after Mr Ahern last week said that, at around the same time as his Manchester trip, he had received a loan of £38,500 from business friends to help him with legal and other costs incurred by his marriage breakdown.

Speaking on RTE television, Mr Ahern confirmed he had received money in 1993 and 1994 from a group of 12 "long-standing friends" but he insisted he had broken no ethical, tax or legal codes.

"I was beholden to none of them and they were not beholden to me," he said. "It was a debt of honour that I would repay in full, and I would pay the interest on it.

"I have not paid any back because they refused to take it. I think they will now. There was no corruption in this, no favours sought, no favours given."

Last week, he sent cheques to each of the businessmen involved to pay off the loans with interest.

Opposition leaders claimed the Progressive Democrats had tempered their anger at Mr Ahern and cut a deal to stay in office.

"The Progressive Democrats sold themselves to the Irish public as the moral watchdogs of government conduct," the Labour party leader, Pat Rabbitte, said.

"Tested in the heat of this controversy, they have collapsed and lost their purpose."