Thanks to Ken Foxe in last weekend’s Sunday Tribune for the discovery that the cost of a Bertie Earner has risen by approximately 25% this year. And that’s before first class travel expenses for himself and his travelling companion are added on.

The Washington Speakers Bureau still list the four types of speech that Bertie Ahern will give to those who stump up the cash and not a mention of a cub or a tiger anywhere. It’s all peahttp://www.mamanpoulet.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpce and the role of a leader as CEO.

So who has booked Bertie to speak in 2010? Anyone caught sight of a programme where he is listed to give his vast and highly valued (by him at least) experience?

The revelation of the fee increase followed a meeting of Aosdana on Saturday where members (artists of renown) unanimously passed a motion calling for the introduction of a new system for awarding tax relief on books. Mr. Ahern was awarded a tax exemption for his autobiography earlier this year. One of the members proposing the award, Antony Cronin

stated that many of the works which were now qualifying for exemption were “rubbish”, and he said Mr Ahern’s recent autobiography, written by English historian Richard Aldous, was “an example of how ridiculous the whole thing has become”.