Taoiseach's finances:The Taoiseach said yesterday that he had "never received any dollars" when questioned at the daily Fianna Fáil election press conference about his personal finances.
Mr Ahern was asked by Irish Daily Mailjournalist Scott Millar: "How can you claim to have received £30,000 sterling from businessman Michael Wall in May 1994 and when this amount was supposedly lodged in your girlfriend's bank account - £28,772.90? That is exactly $45,000."
Mr Ahern replied: "I never received any dollars at all, it wasn't dollars."
The Daily Mailwas the first newspaper to publish details of Mr Ahern's interview with the Mahon tribunal last month. In an RTÉ radio interview on Thursday Mr Ahern admitted that he had on occasion become irritable when asked about his finances by journalists "not from this country".
"When you get some 'whippersnapper' that I have never seen in my life shouting abuse almost at you, I probably do get irritated, but I keep the cool. Lucky for them it's not 20 years ago," he said.
In a clear reference to Mr Ahern's radio comments, Mr Millar - who has a Scottish accent - said to the Taoiseach: "I was born in the Rotunda Hospital and went to O'Connell School in North Richmond Street and walked past a picture of Ray Burke . . . that picture is no longer there."
He then asked him the question about the £30,000 and finished by asking the Taoiseach: "And what would you have done 20 years ago if I had asked you a question on your personal finances?"
Mr Ahern replied: "I will answer the question and can tell you now to put you out of your misery . . . and as past-pupil of O'Connell School, and a decent place it is too . . . I never received any dollars at all, it wasn't dollars." Asked by another reporter when he would be making a statement on his financial affairs, Mr Ahern responded: "As I said, in the course of the election, so I certainly will over the next week or so."