Ahern insists he has not taken any money for fund-raising

The Taoiseach has insisted he has not received money from anybody, when he was questioned in the Dβil yesterday about political fund-raising.

Replying to the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, he said: "I assure the deputy that I have not taken money from anybody, or asked anybody for money, regardless of whether they are people involved in a tribunal."

Mr Noonan had said that the Cabinet handbook set out guidelines for appropriate behaviour for office-holders.

"Some of the guidelines are incorporated in law, others are on a more informal basis. In view of the fact that there is widespread concern, which continues, about revelations at tribunals, does the Taoiseach consider it appropriate that he would accept a donation from a key witness at a tribunal at a recent fund-raising event?

"Does he believe that the Cabinet handbook should be amended to take into account that particular practice if he deems it inappropriate?"

Mr Ahern said the handbook contained detailed and clear guidelines on ethics in public office, and on the 1995 Act, and office-holders had to comply with them. "But I assure the deputy that I have not taken money from anybody."

When Mr Ahern was pressed to clarify newspaper reports about his fund-raising, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, intervened to say that the matter did not arise at Question Time.

Mr Ahern said: "I would like to answer the question, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, because it is the only way of addressing these matters, unless one goes to litigation, which, as I found out on the last occasion, is rather costly because one cannot get one's money back. So it is better to do it here."

Mr Noonan remarked: "Did Starry not have any money?" Mr Ahern replied: "Not a penny. Headlines are written to the effect that one got the money, but one never gets the money and one has to pay the fees.

"That is how the old game works. If a constituency organises a function and I attend as the guest of honour, I neither vet nor organise who else attends that function. Nor do I handle the money."

Earlier, the Labour leader, Mr Ruair∅ Quinn, asked if the handbook, as it currently stood, gave any advice to Ministers using the advertising budgets at their Departments for self-promotion.

A recent set of advertisements had featured the Minister for Finance strolling down the banks of the Grand Canal, he added. He said the Taoiseach should take the view that departmental advertisements should not be availed of by office-holders who would be candidates in forthcoming elections. "I think the Taoiseach knows what I am referring to, and it would be advisable from the point of view of all concerned."