Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed regret that the so-called “Bertie Bowl”, a national sports stadium he proposed, was never built on his last full day in Leinster House.
Mr Ahern, who has confirmed he will not contest the general election, also said he wished that “somebody, somewhere” had told him about the developing crisis in the Irish banking system while he was in office. He said he had lots of regrets about different things.
“I still think we didn’t get a proper, national infrastructural stadium, and I think unfortunately when I see little countries like Quatar and Kuwait...talking about their ten stadiums and we never succeeded in getting one national stadium. That’s an achievement I tried hard to do but I didn’t get.”
Mr Ahern’s radio interview with an RTE reporter today was interrupted by People Before Profit Cllr Joan Collins, who said the former taoiseach and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves because “people like ourselves” were experiencing wage cuts and increased taxes.
“Have you no shame? You’ve been on the TV there the last few days mouthing out of yourself. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Shame on you…I’m getting less money in my pay cheque all the time. How dare you,” Ms Collins said.
She later told The Irish Times she was a post office clerk as well as a councillor for the Crumlin and Kimmage areas of Dublin.
Dismissing Ms Collins’ intervention, Mr Ahern said: “Outside here [Leinster House] this happens every day because people come along here to try get themselves on television and radio”.
However, he conceded: “There is an anger, there’s no doubt about that.”
He said a lot of people had lost their jobs, their standard of living had dropped and they were facing difficulties that they had not faced in the last 15 years.
Mr Ahern said he had spent 34 years in Leinster House, “practically every day of my life”.
He said: “I certainly would like to be leaving today with unemployment being four per cent and economic growth still being the 10 and 11 per cent it was for many of the years I was there,” he said.
“I would have loved if somebody, somewhere had of told me what was going on in the banks in this country but nobody ever did. You get wise after the event.”
Asked if he would miss Leinster House, he said: “Kind of”. However, he confirmed he would campaign. Fianna Fáil TD Cyprian Brady and Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick were selected to run for the party in Dublin Central last night.
