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| Irish PM got loans from 'friends' | Irish PM got loans from 'friends' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has confirmed reports that he received thousands of dollars from friends when he was finance minister in the 1990s. | Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has confirmed reports that he received thousands of dollars from friends when he was finance minister in the 1990s. |
| Mr Ahern said he was lent IR£39,000 ($63,000; £33,000) to pay costs during his marital separation. | |
| "I have broken absolutely no codes - ethical, tax, legal or otherwise," he said in a television interview. | |
| He said he had offered several times to repay the loans, but his lenders had refused to take the money back. | He said he had offered several times to repay the loans, but his lenders had refused to take the money back. |
| Mr Ahern had come under pressure to explain the payments after a newspaper article last week. | |
| 'Debt of honour' | |
| Speaking on Irish television, Mr Ahern confirmed he received an IR£22,500 loan from eight friends in December 1993 and a further loan of IR£16,500 in 1994 from four others. | |
| He said the money went towards paying school fees as part of the settlement with his estranged wife, Miriam Kelly. | |
| Mr Ahern said the payments were a "debt of honour" and denied any wrongdoing. | |
| A visibly emotional Taoiseach (prime minister) recalled the financial stress of his marriage break-up. | |
| "In the separation I agreed to provide IR£20,000 for my children to an education account as part of the agreement and I did that," he said. | |
| "And, I also had to pay off other bills, so the money I had saved was gone." | |
| News of the loans was leaked from confidential meetings between Mr Ahern and a state inquiry investigating planning irregularities in the Irish capital, Dublin, in the 1990s. | |
| The BBC's Dublin correspondent James Helm says Mr Ahern will be hoping that by making public the details of the payments, for which he insists no favours were offered nor given in return, he can take the heat out of the matter and so limit any political damage ahead of a general election next year. |