If it didn't matter to the people last May, as they went to the polls, why should the Taoiseach's stories about the payments of monies in cases, dig-outs, in whip-arounds in Manchester at the dinner, in changing currencies and questionable circumstances matter now?
Almost a year to the day since The Irish Timespublished the fact of the payments, the public mood has changed. It matters now.
Why?
The public wanted to believe last May that Bertie Ahern, while minister for finance, was on his uppers in 1994 after a contested marriage separation, that his good friends rowed in and that, for the first and only time in his life, they provided him with "dig-outs" to help him buy a house to put him back on the road. He needed to have a house to identify as his home as he was about to be elected taoiseach, unexpectedly, after the sudden resination of Albert Reynolds on that weekend in December, 1994. The security hut had to be placed somewhere.
The public wanted to believe Mr Ahern's story because over the years he had been such a good Taoiseach. He had surpassed our expectations of him: set up the Planning tribunal, distanced himself from his then minister for foreign affairs, Ray Burke; presided over the Celtic Tiger years of full employment and improvements in our personal finances; provided stable government; and, most especially, brought about the historic political settlement in Northern Ireland. There is no doubt that the day that Dr Ian Paisley shook hands with Mr Ahern at Farmleigh was one of those glorious moments in our recent history.
We wanted to believe his initial public responses to the payments story. It was Bertie Ahern versus Enda Kenny back in May and, as a people, we went for no change in our personal circumstances, stability, confidence in the crew that was experienced in government because the Celtic Tiger years could be fading. There was a huge swing to Fianna Fáil in the last week of the campaign.
So what has changed to lead the new Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, to propel the Fine Gael party into tabling a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach? It can only be the extraordinary contradictions, inconsistencies and conflicts which Mr Ahern has revealed in his appearances before the Mahon tribunal. Are there any conceivable circumstances, even in the affluent Ireland of today, where a person could receive a case with £30,000 in cash as a once-off payment and not know what happened to it?
It may be arguable whether the Opposition parties got their timing right; whether they should have left Mr Ahern to stew after his first phase of evidence before the tribunal. But, like Mr Kenny, most people believe now that Mr Ahern may have constructed stories to fit known facts. Like Mr Gilmore, most people believe that these things matter.
Mr Ahern has left a trail of confusion, deliberate obfuscation and incredulity in his wake. He is damaged. Most people believe that he has breached the trust they placed in him last May. The ever-changing explanations are coming close to exceeding the ability of many people to look the other way.