By Paddy Clancy

TAOISEACH (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern has denied carrying a briefcase full of cash to Manchester 13 years ago when he was finance minister.

His categorical denial came as supporters of his Fianna Fail party accused main opposition party Fine Gael of a smear campaign against Ahern in the countdown to a general election.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on Tuesday rejected claims that his party was orchestrating a “dirty tricks” campaign against Ahern.

“I have no interest in Bertie Ahern’s personal life or his personal finances. I am not interested in dirty politics,” Kenny said.

But Ahern supporters insisted Fine Gael had targeted the taoiseach over his finances.

The dispute erupted following reports leaked to two Sunday newspapers of allegations made in 2000 by Ahern’s former police driver Martin Fallon.

His claim in exchanges with Kenny and Fine Gael MEP (European Parliament Member) Jim Higgins, both from Mayo, was passed on to a tribunal investigating planning corruption. The tribunal was at the time of the complaint under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Fergus Flood. On his retirement Judge Alan Mahon took charge.

But the claim did not enter the public arena until last Sunday when Higgins confirmed he had written to the tribunal to establish the status of the information he provided nearly seven years ago. Higgins said he needed the information because the tribunal was due to enter a phase of inquiry specific to that era.

But furious Ahern supporters slammed what they described as a “dirty tricks” campaign.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin said, “I think there is absolutely no evidence for it. I think it is a very low-life story from people trying to get into very high places.”

Ahern’s own spokesperson said he hadn’t been contacted by the tribunal about the original allegation by Fallon. The spokesperson added, “The tribunal decided not to investigate (the allegations) because of their manifest untruth.”

Higgins said Fallon claimed Ahern’s former partner Celia Larkin left a briefcase with wads of money in his car after he drove her to a Dublin city center bank. The following day Ahern flew with the briefcase to Manchester.

Ahern has already survived a controversy last Autumn over money from a group of friends in Manchester. He admitted an error of judgment in accepting money from friends who organized collections for him when he was finance minister with personal cash difficulties while going through a marital separation.

A rift threatened last October with Ahern’s junior partners in government, the Progressive Democrats, due to the scandal over the issue.

But PD leader Michael McDowell said he accepted Ahern was “neither dishonest nor corrupt” and he was prepared to remain in power with him despite an admitted “error of judgment” by the taoiseach.

McDowell’s predecessor as head of the PDs, Health Minister Mary Harney, demonstrated this week that she too was backing Ahern and that she believed there was a groundless Fine Gael smear campaign under way.

She queried why, if the information provided by Fallon in 2000 to Kenny and Higgins was convincing, they hadn’t made use of it at the time of

the 2002 general election and again when the Manchester cash controversy emerged last Autumn.

“We had an election in 2002 and we had a debate on these matters in October in the Dail (Parliament) and these issues were never mentioned,” she said.

“I have to say I find it extraordinary that something that was in their possession for seven years would suddenly emerge on the eve of the election.”

Earlier this week, speaking at the launch of Fianna Fail’s pre-election economic policy Ahern insisted, “I never took any money to Manchester in a case.”

“Whatever money I took to Manchester was to get me an overnight in Manchester or to pay for my ticket if I didn’t get it for free to see Manchester United play.”

Fallon has refused to make any comment to Irish papers. He is understood to have suffered from illness in recent years.