Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny has said the Irish Government will consider denying pensions to politicians found to be corrupt.

Ireland’s Cabinet will meet on Tuesday to consider the recommendations handed down by the 15-year Mahon Tribunal which found that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern had lied about large sums of money lodged into his accounts. 

Junior Foreign Affairs Minister, Labour’s Joe Costello, has called on the pensions of corrupt politicians to be stopped. He said there could be a referendum to allow it.

The Cabinet is meeting tomorrow to consider the recommendations of the Mahon Tribunal report.
Kenny, speaking from China, said, “Well, I regret that anybody would be corrupt in politics in the first place.

"It destroys and betrays the trust of people which is sacrosanct to public service and public life.

"These are all matters to be considered in the context of what the Mahon Tribunal has recommended, I've already said that.

"The Government will certainly consider what is practical to implement here."

This weekend, Bertie Ahern announced that he was quitting the Fianna Fail political party and challenging the findings of the Mahon Tribunal Report.

Speaking on RTE’s “Morning Ireland” show, Lisa Chambers, Vice President of the Fianna Fail party, said Ahern’s resignation was “a token effort”.

The 25-year-old barrister, from Castlebar, County Mayo, said she did not accept Ahern’s denials on the Mahon tribunal findings that he told untruths in evidence.

Chambers is one of five vice presidents who attended the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis earlier this month. The others are Aine Brady, Timmy Dooley, Senator Mary White and Kathryn Byrne.

White and Byrne refused to back the motion calling for Ahern’s expulsion at last week’s Ard Comhairle meeting.