Watch: Bertie Ahern cuts German interview short over Mahon Tribunal questions
The former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has walked out of an interview with a German broadcaster.
Mr Ahern was speaking with Deutsche Welle (DW) in Dublin about the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Host of the show 'Conflict Zone', Tim Sebastian, then pressed Mr Ahern over whether or not he thinks he cleared his name in relation to the Mahon Tribunal.
In response, Mr Ahern said: "Yes, I did, I'm quite happy I cleared my name."
Mr Sebastian then pointed out that "the tribunal never reversed its decision."
Mr Ahern said: "No I mean, the tribunal gave its views, the tribunal gave its views.
"I gave my evidence and I was very happy with my evidence, and I was very happy with the situation that I gave and the tribunal is over and it's reported and that's it."
Mr Sebastian continued to press Mr Ahern on the issue, saying: "You're someone who wants to come back maybe as president, these are issues that are in the public domain" - to which Mr Ahern replied: "That'll be for another day, that'll be for another day."
"I've given my total views on that issue and I'm not going to add to them", Mr Ahern said.
"I agreed to meet you on the Good Friday Agreement, we've done that so we're finished, thank you very much."
Mr Ahern then stood up, detached his lapel microphone and left the room.
In a follow-up piece to camera, Mr Sebastian said: "Conflict Zone is a difficult prtogramme for politicians, it isn't meant after all to be easy.
"We had no intention of offending him - this was billed as an interview about the Good Friday Agreement, but we did also offer his office a list of topics that we were going to cover but they didn't come back to us".
The report stemming from the Mahon Tribunal, which focused on allegations of planning corruption, did not find Mr Ahern to be corrupt but resulted in him resigning from the party in March 2012.
"Much of the explanation provided by Mr Ahern as to the source of the substantial funds identified and inquired into in the course of the tribunal's public hearings was deemed by the tribunal to be untrue", the report said in 2012.
He had stepped down as Taoiseach in 2008 and as a TD in 2011.
He said the developments in the Mahon Tribunal had not motivated his decision.
He has always rejected the findings.
You can watch the full interview below:
