As the dust settles following the bombshell of Bertie Ahern's shock departure announcement last Wednesday, we must now look, not to see what his legacy has been - there are enough historians and political commentators who will do that - but to our own personal finances and those of the country.

Like him or loath him, and it was hard not to like him even when you loathed him, An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was right about one thing last Wednesday: the obsession with his personal finances was distracting the general public's attention away from matters that, as we face into tough economic times, should have been of more concern. In focusing on him, we were taking our eye off the ball. We should have been concerned with the finances of the country and our own personal finances and not where his were at years ago.

"It is a matter of real concern to me that the important work of government and party is now being overshadowed by issues relating to me at the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments.

"The constant barrage of commentary on tribunal-related matters has and I believe will continue to dominate the political agenda at an important point for our country. We face uncertain economic times and challenges and we are soon to cast our vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

"The vital interests of Ireland demand that the national dialogue of our political system address these fundamental issues and not be constantly deflected by the minutiae of my life, my lifestyle and my finances," he said.

The Taoiseach is right. As he was making his speech, the Department of Finance was getting set to release its quarterly economic bulletin.

The Live Register figure for February 2008 was 189,485, an increase of 8,036 on the figure for January 2008 and an increase of 30,086 on the figure for February 2007. The underlying seasonally adjusted figure in February 2008 was 187,900, which represents an increase of 8,500 on the figure for January 2008.

The latest figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that the total number of redundancies for the three months to the end of March 2008 was 7,968, an increase of 21.1 per cent on the same period in 2007.

Now that the full glare of the media's attention looks likely to be taken off the Taoiseach's finances, it is time start looking at the state of the country's finances. We are facing into tough economic times. It is now time to refocus on priorities.

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