I salute the Prime Minister for his great sense of honor and courage to resign from his powerful post and distance himself from the corridors of power while the investigations are on-going. That way, he will surely not prejudice the integrity of the institutions. It would be the sweetest victory on his part if he'll be found innocent of charges later on. How I wish politicians from my home country, the great Philippines, would act in similar ways. But wait, I would certainly not recognize them if they would. I'm propose the Philippines import sensible and sensitive public servants from Europe en masse. Mabuhay.

Love Him or Hate HIm, you most certainly admire Him, due to people like Ahern, Blair, Clinton, Paisely, we now have Peace in Ireland,
I never thought I would see this in my life time.
Mr. Ahern will be remembered in Irish History for this & other great acheivements.
Thank you Sir, for a Job well done.

At the time these payments took place the economy and tax system where so messed up that everyone was into some sort of stroke. Tax evasion was normal, everyone was complicit. Bertie is no more guilty than the rest of us. Even if he was minister for finance... But nobody can deny he has played a vital part in the economic and social turnaround that began around the same time.
Buy that man a pint!

How can the speaker of the house uphold an invite to this man to address a joint session of congress. Surely his resignation indicates he is admitting to wrong doing. He should not be invited.

I am upset with such a biased article from a political editor.

Bertie Ahern had very little to do with the peace process (it was Albert Reynolds and John Hume) and was handed a thriving economy that he has single-handedly run to the ground.

He has lied under oath and not fit to run the country. I hope he gets treated with the disrespect he deserves on tour on the US. The man has no shame to even consider it.

A man who's equal could not be found in this generation. A skilled negotiator, a conciliator, a tough brain with a grasp for economic. People may assume economic success just happens, it does not. The leader and this party has provided opportunities never experienced in Ireland.

He follows Sean Lemass as a Irish Taoiseach who knew who to reach out to Unionists in the North and bring all together for peace. Don not let a personal matter overshadow the man and the office.

In the end he realised that his personal matters were better dealt with as a private citizen. The media and others have to question their actions.

Thank you Bertie.

Bertie Ahern has been Taoiseach for as long as I can remember! ;-) Nobody is perfect, & I think he is a great politician & a great ambassador for Ireland. I really like him as a person & am sorry to see him go. I hope history will judge him fairly

Bertie Ahern has made his decision to retire to preserve what little dignity he has left as Prime Minister. His legacy will recognise him as a leader who presided over the most economically successful period in modern Irish history, and also as a leader who was at the helm when peace finally came to these islands, but to credit Mr Ahern as the man who delivered either is to overstate his achievements. Also, and sadly for himself, he will ultimately be judged as yet another Fianna Fail leader who resigned amid clouds of suspicion surrounding his personal finances, the truth of which has yet to emerge. To quote Othello, and former Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey, yes he did the State some service, but the damage he did to Irish politics in terms of low standards in high places is the legacy that remains, and that will be how he is remembered ultimately..

Bertie Ahern is truly a political colossus amongst politicians of his generation. His achievements in securing peace in Ireland, stable government and successive social partnership agreements are unrivalled. With the passage of time I believe the Irish people will come to regard him as probably our greatest leader.

He didn't deserve to represent Ireland anymore, he over stayed his welcome by a year or two. One should know when to step down and leave with dignity and legacy in place, however he leaves with neither of these.

Bertie is respected here in the U.S. for the positive impact He has had during Irelend's economic resurgence. I hope His replacement projects Ireland in the same dignified manner as Mr. Ahern did. He spoke recently at a Friendly Sons dinner here in Pennsylvania and I can tell you there was not a ticket to be had. Good Luck, Mr. Ahern!

I hate that it is too late for this great mans legacy to be saved. The media in this country have a lot to answer for. Every night on radio shows listeners would write into say we are sick of it and have more important things to worry about but they persisted to hound him and the issue. Now we have lost one of the most inspirational, forward thinking and policitically skilled leaders we have ever had. We never appreciate the great ones until we have brought them down or they are dead. I wish him the best in his life and hope that he forgives us.

A tragic hero who brought about his own down fall. Only time will tell how history will view him. For his sake, I hope fairly and for our sakes too!

I salute the man who has passed from the front of Irish politics. He has led his country for almost 11 yrs. He oversaw the settlement towards peace in Ireland and has respect from all political parties and across religious divides. Bertie has established Ireland as a player on the European and world stage and Ireland now packs a punch on the world stage not seen by even larger countries. I regret his decision to resign but I believe he will be vindicated. Well down Taoiseach and thank you for bringing peace to our island.

I think it's a sad day for Ireland; Bertie Ahern was a fantastic Taoiseach. I admire that he's decided to step down in order to re-focus the country on things that actually matter, things like the economy, the health care system and the upcoming legislation finally allowing partnership rights for our gay couples. Ireland will not have a Taoiseach of Ahern's stature for a very long time.

Bertie is the best and most popular taoiseach. I wish him all the best in the future and look forward to his address to the joint houses of Congress. A proud day for Ireland and a great honour for our Taoiseach.

o Bertie the man of the people .Envy by others and hounding by the press of Ireland, have brought about what no election could ever do ...the downfall of a leader . I did not vote for him last time out , but i agreed with the will of my fellow citizens to re elect him . The others parties have brought this private matter into houses of this island Parliaments , to discredit a man over a matter outside the remit of elected officials. So good bye Bertie and the will of the people . Thanks for a great run

Bertie has been an inspirational leader in modern Ireland. There is no other politician with the same combination of pragmatism and political skill. To broker a deal wherein Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness sit around the same table was unthinkable until his involvement.

To think that he has been hounded out of office by individuals such as Eamon Dunphy, a "journalist" with multiple drink driving convictions and a 20 year driving ban and Judge Alan Mahon (Chairman of the Tribunal into the payments to Politicians) who has himself a not so clean past is absolutely outrageous.

I wish Bertie all the best and much success in the future.

I am so disappointed that so little is being said about his inability to maintain the highest standards of conduct.

No elected representative should even fall under a suspicion of wrongdoing, yet Mr. Ahern is known to lodged over US$1,000,000 (in today's terms) to his various accounts and cannot explain why or how with any degree of credibility. Is this acceptable?

He admitted giving party funds to his partner years ago in order for her to purchase property, a "loan" only paid back in December 2007 after the Tribunal had acquired evidence of it. Is this acceptable?

He said on television in 2006 that he was making a full and frank declaration of all monies he received. This was later seen to be a blatant lie as he was presented with evidence at the Tribunal. Is this acceptable?

He admitted in the same interview that he later appointed to public service a person had given him money in a "dig-out". Is this acceptable?

Why are people so ready to accept low standards from those in high office? Because he had the good luck to be in power when the economy grew? He cannot take all the credit for that, and even if he could, the health, education and transport systems in Ireland are sorely lacking in many ways. He contined building on the foundations laid by Albert Reynolds, John Major and others. That was his job, and credit where credit is due, he did it well, but he is the architect of his own undoing and I am so disheartened by the failure of many people to acknowledge his failings and very poor example.

Blaming the media for "hounding" him is pathetic. It is the duty of journalists and editors to represent the facts as they unfold. What would they prefer? State controlled reports? Give me a break.

Good Lord, Grace Lord! This is exactly why poor Berie was forced to leave. Perhaps you would liek to furnish the Mahon Tribunal with your equations and calculations as to how you came to the suitably round sum of 1 million US dollars?! And they would be most interested to know if this was in fact in Dollar, Sterling or Euros.
It is the duty of a journalist to represent the fact. Unfortunately, duty amongst journalists can indeed be lacking, and frivilous statements throwing around million dollar sums really don't help!

Unlike the author of the editorial, the do think Bertie has a great chance of being first permanent president of the EU, based on the fact that he IS so well liked and respected by other EU leaders, including Blair (who I don't see getting the job based on his Iraq record). Time will tell.

And it is this likeability that has made him the current longest serving head of government in any EU state, and at the end of the month will make him only the fourth person in history to have addressed a joint sitting of both Westminster and Congress. You don't get invites to those sort of gigs unless a LOT of people like you alot.

I am really sorry he has not been able to have amore dignified exit – I think he made a tremendous contribution over the years on all fronts.

Our Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, was a fantastic leader.
He was a fantastic party leader also and succeeded in bringing Fianna Fail to power three times in a row. His role in the peace process in Northern Ireland was superb, which other world leaders have referred to since he announced his resignation, PM Gordon Brown, Mr. Tony Blair and Senator Hilary Clinton.

He also united the Fianna Fail party when he took over as leader, no small achievement in itself.

The media have alot to answer for. All the hype surrounding the tribunal made it impossible for him to concentrate on the work in the office of An Taoiseach. Let the tribunal reach its findings. The media are not the people responsible for judging if any wrongdoing occurred. When he said yesterday that he never took a corrupt payment I belived him and I believe he will be vindicated when the tribunal submit their findings. And yet he felt he had to leave office. Not fair.

Robin Oakley in his article talks of Bertie not now having a chance of becoming European President. I don't think he is a well informed journalist. He also talks of other European leaders past and present being contenders. I live in Ireland, on the edge of Europe. I cannot think of anyone who comes close to Bertie's standard of leadership. He is Europe's longest serving Prime Minister currently. Who are the other European leaders? Nobody's!!!

Hi Tom from Dublin,

Actually, I rounded down the "suitably round sum" of a million dollars from US$1.3 million and I took that information from an article in the Irish Times which you may like to read at the following link:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0329/1206144877731.html

If you cannot access the link you may be able to find a copy of the Irish Times from Saturday March 28 where the article ran on the front page.

The article was written by a journalist whom I respect (Colm Keena)and published by a reputable paper. The author totals the amounts at €886,830 which is about US$1.3 million.

My apologies for not including this information in my original post, which may have induced people to tag it as "frivilous" (sic).

Sorry, that edition of the Irish Times was March 29, not 28.

"Bertie" is guilty of something far worse than accepting unusual donations from businessmen. He has presided over a period in which the Irish people have become increasingly apathetic about politics, as they now assume that all politicians are corrupt and ineffective. This is one reason Fianna Fail were returned to power for a third term...people simply do not care any longer.
The culture of corruption still exists despite the tribunals and investigations simply becasue as Bertie has shown, obfuscation can drag the process out so long and cost the taxpayer som much in legal fees that even those who support the process call for an end to it.
As for a "peoples Taoiseach", Bertie has been chauffeur-driven since becoming a Minister in the late 1980s, and done little or nothing to address the appalling state of public transport in Ireland.
The health service is a complete disaster (if you think Britains NHS is bad, you've never seen ours!).
Some 200 semi-state bodies have been established under Ahern to effectively distance the government from the failings of their policies, undermining political responsibility.
Coalition partners were given the "poison chalices" of Health and Justice, then discarded for the utterly ineffective and anti-EU Green Party.

Despite the period of economic growth that began under Fine Gael/Labour and Ruairi Quinn, very little meaningful progress has been achieved in infrastructure and the social services, whilst business and commercial concerns have been "taken care of".

In Ireland, Bertie Ahern is well-known for never giving a straight answer to any question, instead relying on a confusing muddle of statements similar to the maze of financial dealings he cannot account for in the 1990s when as Minister for Finance, he had no bank account!
If the average Irish citizen is expected to pay tax or pay the price then so must be the elected leader of those people.

I was a Fianna Fail supporter once....no more!

J Gannon, Galway above has probably made the fairest assessment of Ahern I've ever read!

Ahern is the third consecutive Fianna Fail leader who has been suspected of "fiddling the figures" in their personal financial dealings and was a Minister uder the two leaders who preceeded him. His predecessors were Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey.
Ahern has blamed the media for his own failings, yet basked in glory when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. He cannot have it both ways. In any other Western country he would have been forced to resign months ago.

P.S. Ahern is not a "Prime Minister", the title he holds is "Taoiseach", Irish for "leader". His deputy is called the Tanaiste.
The Irish government is structured more along the lines of the American model with a Dail (assembly) and Senate.
However, our President is a state figure-head and has no real power in practical terms.