Politicians are hard working people, many of them with a deep interest in bettering the country. They are subject to temptations and pressures.

The Mahon Tribunal was suspended before last year' general election supposedly in the interests of the democratic process.
Given the evidence of the last two days from Bertie Ahern, was that the right decision?

At that time Bertie Aherne assured the voters that he had a good explanation to the transactions being queried and he would give full and satisfactory answers in due course after the election.

There is a perception that Fine Gael was damaged electorally because the party pursued the matter. Now that we are hearing the full explanation it appears less than satisfactory.

Is there any possibility that the evidence we have since heard from Mahon would have affected the elections results? And if so, should Fine Gael be calling for the government to stand down and face a general election ?

I think FG lost the election because people did not have confidence in their front bench. There was plenty of damaging stuff abroad at that time. FG tested the water with their attacks on Bertie in Nov 2006 and made their own political decision to withdraw. I don't know that it would be any different now.

FG have a valid complaint in that Tribunal should have reported long before the election. A more efficient mode of investigation would have concluded long ago allowing FG to fight the election on the issues. Instead they had to deal with a distacted and disoriented media.

As for calling for a new election, I think people voted on the economy and are still most concerned about the economy. People do not want a government distracted by an election. I have only heard one FG supporter say he would like another election. Nobody else is that interested