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Ryan Tubridy has defended Bertie Ahern, after the former Taoiseach walked out of a recent interview.

Mr Ahern was grilled by Tim Sebastian, host of Germany's Conflict Zone, on the Mahon Tribunal.

He asked the 66-year-old about events that led to his resignation.

The video of the former Taoiseach getting up in the middle of an interview, removing a microphone clip and walking out of the studio leaving an empty chair has gone viral and has been seen all over the world.

Speaking about the incident on his RTE Radio show, Ryan Tubridy said: "They were there, ostensibly, to talk about the Good Friday Agreement, and then the interview went somewhere else entirely. He's within his rights, actually, to do that.

"I think Bertie Ahern is probably within his rights on that one.

"If they said to him: 'We're going to go here, here and here' that's fine.'

"But if they said: 'We're just going here,' well then that's not so cool.

(Image: RTE)

"That's probably why he said: 'You know what, if I agreed to do that class of interview then I'd do that class of interview but that's not the class of interview I agreed to do.

"That's the way it has been ever since the sands of time. That's how they roll."

Now, Mr Ahern has spoken for the first time about the interview and the furore it has caused after he was approached by the Irish Mirror on the margins of a Brexit conference in Dublin.

He is unapologetic for his walkout and adamant that the German show did not give him advance notice of the line of questioning they turned to in the now infamous interview.

The controversial former Taoiseach also said that he has dealt with the fallout from the Mahon Tribunal conclusively in the past, including a one hour interview with RTE, and that he has no intention of going “back and back and back” and revisiting the issue.

Mr Ahern was critical of the way the German TV station, DW, handled the situation.

“They sent us an email, I did 28 interviews with different people, you are probably fed up looking at them, I had to go out of my way to do that one for them,” Mr Ahern said.

(Image: Collins Photo Agency) (Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

“I had about 20 minutes, they said clearly it was about the Good Friday Agreement and that they’d throw in a bit about Brexit and that was it.

“They made it absolutely clear they were broaching nothing except Brexit and that,” Mr Ahern said.

“You know me, I talk to journalists all the time, it was very clear, it was the Good Friday Agreement and then they said some questions on Brexit and then they actually said if there was anything else, they would send another email, which they never did.”

The Mirror asked Mr Ahern if he regretted walking out of the interview in light of the negative reception it has received on the internet.

“I don’t worry about it one way or the other, he asked for an interview, I gave an interview and that was it.

(Image: Maxwell Photography)

“I stood up, I shock hands with him, there was no row, argument - and then they sent it off trying to get publicity for themselves.

“It was very clear, my offices were very annoyed with them because I only have one person in the office.

“I went out of me way, broke me neck to do it for them, they just didn’t honour what was agreed, there’s no more to it than that,” he said.