FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has criticised Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan for remarks he made regarding Mr Ahern's finances and his dealings with the Mahon tribunal last week.
Mr Lenihan said at the weekend that Mr Ahern's finances were "not a pretty picture and the tribunal has to make sense of this". The Minister also said that Mr Ahern's evidence did not pose a threat to the Government's campaign for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
However, in a terse response Mr Ahern said Mr Lenihan did not know the "full facts" regarding his personal affairs.
Mr Ahern said: "You know, I would very much doubt if Minister Lenihan was in there to look at me for 14 hours last week. If he knew that, I think he would see the full facts, and you know, perhaps he should have done that before he said that."
Mr Ahern remarked that he had not seen RTÉ's The Week in Politics on Sunday night on which Mr Lenihan appeared, nor did he read the reportage of the comments.
"I didn't hear them, to be honest, or read about it. Somebody mentioned it to me this morning.
"I only heard one comment that it didn't paint a pretty picture," said Mr Ahern.
During the television interview, Mr Lenihan said of Mr Ahern that "it doesn't appear he has done anything wrong in terms of the tribunal's terms of reference, but it is not a pretty picture".