The former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says he plans to spend his retirement “in the gym” and watching Sky Sports.

Mr Ahern has announced that he won’t contest the forthcoming general election.

The former Taoiseach told his local Fianna Fáil Cumann that he’d always insisted on retiring around the age of 60 – a birthday he’ll reach next September.

Speaking to reporters he says he’s looking forward to the new year and once the election takes place he’ll spend more time in the gym and with his grandchildren, and watching sky sports.

He says if he could have changed one thing it would have been the banking crisis, but no-one from an economist to a journalist advised him of an impending problem – never once he insisted.

Bertie Ahern says he believes Fianna Fail will do better than the opinion poll suggests, and that he will campaign for his constituency colleague in the upcoming election.