Joe Higgins: Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the Taoiseach should not have brought his personal life into the controversy over payments.
"It is not relevant. But again, last night, deliberately, you cast RTÉ's Bryan Dobson in the role of agony aunt in order to divert attention from the critical issues you are refusing to answer," said Mr Higgins.
"Your personal circumstances are irrelevant, because you said last night that you already had got a bank loan to pay off pressing bills."
Mr Higgins said it had taken him two minutes to draft the letter which the Taoiseach should have sent with a bank draft in returning the money.
To laughter from all sides, Mr Higgins read: "Ah jaysus, lads, you'll have me in huge trouble if you don't take back the 50 grand. My circumstances have improved, and I will have 50 reporters traipsing me for the rest of my life if this comes out. Bertie."
Perhaps, said Mr Higgins, the Taoiseach would have used a PS: "Tell Paddy the plasterer to stay clear of Calelly's house. He is in enough trouble with the painter already."
Mr Higgins accused the Taoiseach of facilitating the powerful and the wealthy at every hand's turn.
"Therefore, it is no surprise to me that wealthy businessmen should cough up €50,000 to you. What is shocking is that still you apparently do not see that a minister for finance, taking large amounts of cash from businessmen, is by any objective yardstick a massive conflict of interest, by anybody's standards." Mr Higgins said that, in 1993, the average industrial wage was €13,416 annually.
"So three times that amount, by any ordinary worker's standards, would be a colossal amount."
Mr Ahern said that the impression was being given that his friends were "captains of industry", which was very far from the truth.
"They are people who assisted me at a particular time because they knew the circumstances. I accepted that only on the basis that they were loans with interest. And that's the position."
He said everybody appointed to a State board, whether by himself or his colleagues, was a person believed to be qualified for that appointment.
"They are appointments based on merit, taking into account the particular combination of skills, qualifications, background and life experience which each person has," he added.
Mr Ahern added that three of the five had been on State boards long before they had given him a loan. He thought the other two would be considered, under any fair examination, to be outstanding people. He added that "comprehensive" documentation relating to the loans existed and it was with the tribunal.
Mr Higgins referred to the "Trappist-like silence" of the Tánaiste and the PDs.
