Bertie Ahern has stood behind his controversial style of brokering deals.
The ex-Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader said the most important thing to do was play both sides of a negotiation or nobody would ever get anywhere.
Speaking to Ivan Yates on Newstalk last night, he said: “If you try and give the straight answer in politics, most of the time you’re saying no.
“And if you just give the straight answer, how would I have brought all of those parties together for all those years.
“You have to try and see the good and the bad and get somewhere in the middle.
“And the trick was that in the same reply, that you reflected both sides because otherwise you weren’t going to get an agreement.
“I personally can say it now, that I got great satisfaction from seeing articles that didn’t understand what I had said.
“That’s precisely what I wanted to do. The end of the game was that I set out to achieve what I wanted to.
“I think what I realised and what took for ever to do, is you had to be reflecting the two sides of the argument.
“If you came in and I said, ‘Listen, I want to tell you that everything you’ve said I’m opposed to’, I’d never have gotten anywhere.
“It was understanding the other person’s viewpoint.”
Mr Ahern left behind a complicated legacy.
He is the only living Taoiseach to serve three consecutive terms and saw the country through the Celtic Tiger era.
However, there was controversy surrounding his financial affairs after he featured in the Mahon Tribunal.
Mr Ahern served as Taoiseach from June 1997 to May 2008. He also held the position of Tanaiste and various ministries throughout his career.
