TWO fundamental factors allow any business to survive: profits and capital. Throughout the year, faced with a drop in revenue, businesses have responded by battening down the hatches.

A former drug addict who absconded to Australia seven years ago when due for sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for an attempted robbery which resulted in a garda leaving the force has been jailed.

THE tribunal was back as the most popular show in Dublin this week. But this time it was not as a drama but as pure farce.

Bertie Ahern has told the Mahon Tribunal that although he learned that some lodgements to his bank accounts were in sterling before his former secretary took the stand, he did not contact her to tell her.

IR£80,000

AFTER admitting she lodged sterling on behalf of the Taoiseach, his former constituency office secretary Gráinne Carruth broke down in the Mahon Tribunal witness box yesterday.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern would have given her oral instructions when he gave her money to lodge on his behalf, his former constituency secretary Gráinne Carruth told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday.

SO, ANOTHER strand of the Taoiseach’s evidence to the Mahon Tribunal is in conflict with the recollections of those who are in a position to substantiate his story.

FORMER building society manager Blair Hughes told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he believed Irish punt lodgments to the accounts of the Taoiseach and his daughters came from cash exchanges of stg£15,500.

FUNDS raised for the Fianna Fáil party were diverted into an account administered by businessman Tim Collins — the only signatory until earlier this year when two joint treasurers were appointed, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

PART of the Mahon Tribunal’s probe into Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s personal finances has been put back for two weeks.

BERTIE AHERN’S former partner Celia Larkin was given an unsecured £30,000 loan by Fianna Fáil 15 years ago — but it was only repaid “in the period since Christmas”, the Mahon Tribunal learned yesterday.

NUMEROUS lodgments were made to a second Irish Permanent Building Society [IPBS] account opened by one of the Taoiseach’s closest associates.

LODGMENTS up to three times greater than his salary were discovered in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s personal deposit account with a building society during the early 1990s, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern had £32,000 in a building society account in May 1995 when he told AIB his savings amounted to just £5,000, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

CHARLES HAUGHEY misappropriated at least £45,000 from funds raised to cover the late Brian Lenihan’s medical expenses and may, in fact, have taken as much as £194,000.

VINCENT BROWNE seems to become more cynical about politics in general and Fianna Fáil in particular every night on his RTÉ radio programme. Of course, he was one of the first people to write about Tom Gilmartin’s allegations back in September 1998.

THE bid by Royal Bank of Scotland of €6.20 per share for First Active has sparked one of the biggest bonanzas for investors in this country in a long time.

Charles Haughey has rejected the notion that he would divert money from a fund set up to save Brian Lenihan's life.

The Moriarty Tribunal has heard that two cheques totalling £30,000 for the Brian Lenihan liver transplant fund ended up in the account of Celtic Helicopters, which was run by one of Charles Haughey's sons.