BERTIE AHERN has made more than €3,300 of calls on a state-provided mobile phone since he left office in May. Like all former taoisigh, he is entitled to a free phone in his retirement package.

Documentation released under the Freedom of Information Act reveals €534.25 was rung up on Charles Haughey’s phone between June and December 2006. The former taoiseach died on June 13 that year.

The figures reveal Garret FitzGerald made €5,650 worth of calls between June 2006 and last October. In the same period Albert Reynolds ran up a bill of €3,839, and John Bruton, now the EU ambassador to Washington, €3,720.

Liam Cosgrave, who served as taoiseach for four years in the 1970s, does not take advantage of this perk. Nor does he use the secretary to whom he is entitled. Ahern has two secretaries, a facility that will continue for five years, when the number is reduced to one.

The cost of providing a secretary to a former taoiseach is approximately €50,000 a year. The bill for Ahern will be double that. Bruton, who can call on up to 80 EU officials, has not used any Irish secretarial services since last April.

All former taoisigh are entitled to a state car, a garda driver and an allowance for computer equipment. They are also paid hefty pensions.

Ahern received severance pay worth €68,000 after he stepped down as taoiseach. He is still being paid approximately €100,000, his basic salary as a TD, and six months after retirement he became entitled to a pension to the value of 60% of the current taoiseach’s salary.

The former Fianna Fail leader is still in talks with Random House about a deal for his memoirs. Publishing sources say that the total package offered by the publisher to Ahern is in the region of €450,000.

Given the huge downturn in publishing, there is surprise that the former taoiseach has yet to sign the lucrative contract.

After a dismal year for book sales, several American publishers have cut jobs or frozen salaries. Significant staff reductions are expected at Random House, which is undergoing a consolidation.

“Given what a terrible year publishers are having, I wouldn’t be surprised if Random was to withdraw or try to downscale its offer,” said a source in another publishing house. “If I were Bertie Ahern, I’d be signing this contract straight away.”

Random outbid several other publishers by a considerable margin. Richard Aldous, a professor of history at University College Dublin, has been hired by Ahern to help write the autobiography. Likely to be published in late 2010, the memoir is expected to be pitched at American and British readers, relating how Ahern brought peace and prosperity to Ireland.

Mandy Johnston, the former government press secretary, is acting as Ahern’s literary agent on the deal. “We are hoping to make an announcement very shortly on it, but we’re still in negotiations and haven’t proceeded to signing contracts or anything,” she said. “We are hoping to get it done this side of Christmas.”

Additional reporting by Jan Battles

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