Information given to these very powerful tribunals should be kept confidential if that is the basis on which it is given. The Taoiseach is, however, wrong to think that he is under no obligation to provide the public with a comprehensive explanation of exactly what happened 13 years ago.

He may fulminate against the messenger but the message is clear: he accepted gifts from rich friends when he was minister for finance. How much it was, what it was used for and why he took it must all now be explained if his integrity is to remain intact.

On the tax liability for the gift, the Taoiseach has said he has "dealt properly with anything that I have done personally". He must be clearer on this detail too.

Many will feel that it's a bit rich for the Taoiseach . . . or any politician for that matter . . . to complain about leaks. Leaks are the lifeblood of politics and are used assiduously by politicians who want either to maximise coverage of an announcement or limit the damage likely to be caused by a revelation they know is coming down the tracks.

The Taoiseach's disingenuous responses took on an irritable quality last week when he was questioned by reporters about donations from wealthy friends.

"I'm not answering what I got for my holy communion money, my confirmation money, what I got for my birthday, what I got for anything else, " he retorted with uncharacteristic anger.

Ahern can be assured that nobody wants to know about how much he got in his confirmation or communion envelopes . . . or from whom. He was not minister for finance at the time.

But we do want to know about the 1993 gift, which the Irish Times insists was between 50,000 and 100,000 and Ahern says was significantly lower.

It was Ahern's handlers who proferred the detail that the money was to fund his separation from his wife Miriam. The personal nature of the destination of the gift makes it understandably difficult for the Taoiseach to talk about it. But it is irrelevant to the principle that no taoiseach, government minister . . . or backbench TD for that matter . . . can accept gifts from strangers or friends, whether they are high-flying businessmen or ordinary joes, without compromising him or herself.

Ahern acknowledged this in his own robust response to the McCracken report into his mentor Charles Haughey's sources of wealth.

"We could not condone the practice of senior politicians seeking or receiving from a single large donor sums of money or services in kind, " he told the Fianna Fail ardfheis back in 1997. That clear break with the past set him up squarely as the new face of Fianna Fail . . . honest, competent and fair.

We now know that when Ahern was giving this speech on probity in public life he had received money from business friends himself.

Eight months before he asks the people of this country to vote him into a third term as taoiseach, he owes it to the electorate to explain why his case is so different in principle, if not in scale, to that of Haughey and the other politician revealed to have accepted money from a business friend, Michael Lowry.

Stability and integrity are a central part of Fianna Fail's election campaign, with the Taoiseach's face widely used on posters and pamphlets as the personification of the leader you can trust. A clear and straightforward explanation of the gifts he received from his circle of friends is what is wanted now and not the obfuscation of indignation at "sinister" leaks.