Ahern wants to be 'helpful' to Fianna Fáil after rejoining party
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Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern says he has given no thought to being the Fianna Fáil candidate for the presidency in 2025, but that he will work to be "helpful" to the party.
Mr Ahern rejoined the party's Dublin Central Cumann in recent weeks, more than a decade after he resigned from the party before Micheál Martin moved to expel him following the publication of the Mahon Tribunal report.
Mr Ahern made his first public appearance at a Fianna Fáil event to mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement this evening, receiving a standing ovation from the 300 attendees in Ballsbridge.
Stopping to speak to reporters on the way in, Mr Ahern said that he had rejoined the party before Christmas. He said that he had paid the €20 membership and rejoined the Dublin Central branch of the party at the end of 2022.
"I rejoined the party before Christmas, following discussions at the parliamentary party meeting in September where there was widespread support for me joining as a member. That was followed by a huge amount of the National Executive and councillors contacting me. So I decided then that I would join."
Mr Ahern played down any suggestion that he would be returning to the party as a Dáil candidate, saying that he had not "taken his old job".
Mr Ahern's return to the party has prompted speculation that he would look to run for the Áras in 2025. Asked by The in September, a spokesperson did not deny his interest.
Today, Mr Ahern said that he has no intention of running for the Dáil, but asked about the presidency, was less definitive.
"My main job is to stay alive that long," he joked.
Mr Ahern denied that his return was "a rehabilitation" of his reputation. He said that no rehabilitation is needed
On the North, Mr Ahern said that he had just returned from Brussels, where he had met with Northern Irish secretary of state Chris Heaton Harris and had debated the protocol, before visiting the North on Thursday.
"My concentration will continue to be on the North and trying to get the institutions up and running. In the last 10 years I've been to conferences across the country, I've been doing them non-stop and consider them my public service."
Mr Ahern said that any potential run for the presidency was "a long way off" and his goal was "to be helpful to the party". He said that he had a role in Fianna Fáil "as far as I want it" at present, but that this was not a formal arrangement.
Speaking earlier in Brussels, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar defended old comments he made about Mr Ahern, comparing his Mahon Tribunal defence to convicted criminal John Gilligan, saying the remarks were made at a "particular point in time".
He made the comments after Mr Ahern had resigned from Fianna Fáil in May 2008 and after his evidence at the Mahon tribunal.
When asked in Brussels on Thursday morning if he stood over his comments about the former taoiseach, Mr Varadkar appeared to soften his stance.
"I think that was at a particular point in time and if you look at the totality of Bertie Ahern’s career, let's not forget that he was one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement and that’s something that we’re going to recognise in a few months' time. I don't think anyone can diminish the role that he played,” Mr Varadkar said.