Bertie Ahern came to power in 1997 promising a new brand of Fianna Fáil politics and there was a lot on his side - he was the youngest ever Taoiseach at the age of 45 - he served for over a decade and became one of the most successful politicians since Independence.
One of those successes came in the North - from the Good Friday Agreement of 1997 through to the establishment of the Power Sharing Executive and the decommissioning of the IRA’s guns in 2005.
Ahern became known as the Teflon Taoiseach - but despite that he was prone to bothed metaphors and gaffes. ‘Smokes and daggers’; ‘upset the apple tart’ and ‘the boom times are getting more boomer’ all come to mind - and a few more besides.
Bertie’s Fianna Fáil was prone to occasional controversies and white elephants - 60 million was spent on the 60 million euro E-Voting Machines - with hundreds of millions more lost on the doomed Stadium Ireland - or Bertie Bowl; even his appearance on RTE’s The Premiership caused a fuss.
Despite that, Ahern was an unmatched electoral leader. Reaching his peak in the 2002 General Election and securing another term in 2007 - just a year before the economic crash of 2008.
The economy is the key domestic question mark over his tenure.
Despite presiding over the Celtic Tiger years. His coalition is accused of misjudging the scale of state spending and the problems facing our banks.
On top of that, his own finances were a long shadow cast over his tenure. Allegations of lodgements and dig-outs culminated in the Mahon Tribunal. Everywhere he turned - Ahern was facing questions.
As more revelations surfaced at Mahon - the pressures on Ahern grew. Fianna Fáil dropped 7 points in opinion polls towards the end of 2007. The opposition branded his finances ‘a national embarrassment’ and called for his resignation.
That departure eventually came in 2008.
Bertie Ahern’s move from Government Buildings precluded the Bank Guarantee, the turmoil in the lenders and the unemployment crisis.
He’s likely to be asked about comments he’s made since - claiming that nobody told the Government it would be so bad.
So TDs finally get their chance to question the Teflon Taoiseach about his role in the banking crisis tomorrow.
They’ll have plenty to talk about…
