Labour leader says Taoiseach should now resign his office

The leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore, has said the Taoiseach's explanations to the Mahon tribunal in relation to his personal finances were "simply not believable" and he should now resign his office.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland yesterday, Mr Gilmore said he would be surprised if the Green Party was not privately sending the same message to Mr Ahern.

He said the strategy adopted by the main Opposition parties of not raising the questions surrounding the Taoiseach's personal finances during the general election had been "a mistake".

Mr Gilmore accepted that voters had known about the controversy in advance of the general election in May. However, he said what had changed since then was that Mr Ahern had appeared before the tribunal and had provided explanations that were not credible.

Over four days of evidence the Taoiseach had not given a credible explanation for the "rather unusual set of lodgements and withdrawals from his private bank accounts".

"The story is simply not believable when you put all the pieces together. What flows from that is Mr Ahern's position as Taoiseach is now in question.

"In any country where the prime minister is in this situation, where he accepted large sums of money when minister for finance, and where he had not been able to provide a credible explanation for that, there is only one course for him, and that is for him to resign his office."

Mr Gilmore said it would be better for the country if Mr Ahern decided voluntarily to leave office.

"I think it is a decision he should make himself. I do not think he should put the body politic and the country as whole into a situation where there has to be a great political row about this."

He believed there were many people, including many who supported Mr Ahern, who were "greatly troubled by the whole sequence of events that has happened and the Taoiseach's explanation".

Asked whether the Labour Party had been reluctant to raise the Taoiseach's finances during the general election campaign as it perceived the issue as a vote loser, Mr Gilmore said: "Can I say, I do not think we should ever assess issues such as this on a basis that it is a vote-loser or vote-gainer.

"In so far as that was the approach taken before the election, in my view that was a mistake."

Mr Gilmore said there was no need to wait 12 to 18 months for the tribunal to write its report and that a political conclusion had to be drawn on the issue.