A Fianna Fail minister has ruled out any senior role for Bertie Ahern after his return to the party this week.
Minister of state for international development Sean Fleming said despite rumours the veteran politician may run for president in 2025, it was “furthest from our minds”. He described the former Taoiseach’s return to the party as like resolving a row between family.
The Dublin politician won three consecutive elections for Fianna Fail and was Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008. He left the party a decade ago as efforts to expel him ramped up after the findings of the Mahon Tribunal.
While it did not accuse Mr Ahern of corruption, it said he did not “truthfully account” for sources of cash he lodged to his bank account. Minister Fleming told RTE Radio One: “I haven’t spoken to Bertie Ahern directly.
“He was our party leader for a number of years and we know the work he did on the Good Friday Agreement social partnership, something we’ve kind of lost a little bit in recent times. However, he was out of our party for 10 years.
“I just see it, straight up, the guy wants to come back into the fold, like somebody in the family falling out with a family: ‘Ten years have passed, can we come back into the fold?’
“I actually personally don’t believe there’s anything further beyond him just wanting to be back in the fold.” He said that the next general, European, local and presidential elections were “furthest from our minds at this stage”.
Mr Fleming added: “He had been a very senior officer in the party – a party leader – there’s no question of him returning to any senior position of influence in the party.”
In the wake of his readmittance this week, Mr Ahern told reporters his intention is to be helpful to the Government to restore Northern Ireland’s powersharing institutions.
“I’ve no intention of going back to my old job,” he said, but added the presidential election was ‘too far away’ to comment on, adding that it “doesn’t come up for a long, long time”.
When asked whether his return was a rehabilitation of his image, he said: “I don’t have to rehabilitate myself anywhere.”
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