Businessman Des Richardson has brought a High Court challenge against a number of findings of the Mahon Tribunal including that he failed to disclose the source of £39,000 held in a bank account.

Bertie Ahern will relinquish his grip on his St Luke’s fiefdom in the final act of his humiliating departure from the party he once dominated.

The infamous house once served as Bertie Ahern’s political power base, but now as the keys are handed over to Fianna Fáil, it stands as a lasting reminder of a period of dishonesty and corruption, writes Michael Clifford

Fifteen years after the longest running inquiry into political corruption in Ireland was established, its final findings have been published.

Bertie Ahern lied when accounting for more than £215,000 of money lodged to bank accounts connected to him, the tribunal believes.

The country's biggest corruption inquiry has found former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not truthfully account for bank lodgements and savings totalling around IR£275,000.

The Mahon tribunal has found former taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not truthfully account for bank lodgements and savings totalling around IR£275,000.

Fifteen years after the country's longest running inquiry into political corruption in Ireland was established its final findings have been published.

FIANNA FÁIL is €2.2 million in debt but aims to reduce the figure to €1m by Christmas 2012 through aggressive fundraising.

“WE DON’T do presents” said Maurice Ahern, as he strolled into his brother’s controversial birthday party last night.

IT was fitting that Bertie Ahern’s confused political career should end at a gathering of the O’Donovan Rossa Fianna Fáil cumann — whose mythical past and fundraising techniques helped define him.

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern has blamed his separation for the tangled financial web that caused his Mahon Tribunal difficulties and ultimately led to his downfall.

THE Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday about a businessman who believed he quit a property company in the mid-1990s only to find he was still listed as a director six years later.

AN Australia-based businessman has admitted surprise that Bertie Ahern repaid him money 13 years after he had contributed £2,500 to a “dig-out” for the former Taoiseach in the mid-1990s.

FORMER EU commissioner and attorney general David Byrne said yesterday that he had absolutely no doubt that Bertie Ahern’s constituency office in Drumcondra was bought for the benefit of Fianna Fáil.

FIANNA Fáil TD Seán Fleming told the Mahon Tribunal that former chief fundraiser Des Richardson was in breach of the party’s procedures by failing to lodge a $10,000 donation to a Fianna Fáil bank account.

A FIANNA Fáil fundraiser has told the Mahon Tribunal that he cannot remember the identity of up to 30 people who agreed to fund the purchase of Bertie Ahern’s constituency office in 1987.

A FORMER building society official has told the Mahon Tribunal that its Drumcondra staff always believed a controversial “B/T” account under investigation by the inquiry was linked to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

IMPORTANT documents relating to five bank accounts linked to Bertie Ahern’s constituency organisation were destroyed sometime after 2001, it emerged during yesterday’s hearing of the Mahon Tribunal.

THERE is a contrast between Europe and America but not a contradiction, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the joint houses of Congress yesterday.

MUCH of Charles Haughey’s financial need was caused by the requirement to keep his mistress Terry Keane in the style to which she had become accustomed.

THE chairman of the Mahon Tribunal yesterday asked Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s lawyer to withdraw what he called disgraceful and offensive comments.

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.

IS it fatal?

PSST, wanna passport, bud?

NORMAN TURNER shot to prominence in December last year when the former chairman of the National Lottery, John Hynes, directly linked Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the promotion of a casino in the Phoenix Park.

The Taoiseach tonight denied any wrongdoing in helping a Manchester tycoon secure an Irish passport in 1994.

FORMER agriculture minister Joe Walsh told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he was “surprised” to discover a private dinner he attended in Cork before St Patrick’s Day in 1994 was a Fianna Fáil party fundraising event.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern is unlikely to face further questions into his personal finances at the Mahon Tribunal until February at the earliest.

THE biggest ongoing political story of 2007 is set to dominate 2008 again: the investigation of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s previous financial affairs at the Mahon Tribunal. Many people can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing, both for Ahern and for the country. To tease out the issues I’ve set out a fictional conversation between two people, arguing both sides. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

IN hurricane season, you track the storm as it moves on. The place that was devastated yesterday is becalmed today. Some place further up the line is now bearing the brunt of its fury.

HAVING accepted an invitation several months earlier, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern changed his mind about performing the opening of the Liffey Valley shopping centre in 1998, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

PUBLICAN Dermot Carew told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he handed over IR£16,500 in cash to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, with the comment: “Bert, the boys and myself want you to have that”.

PUBLICAN Charlie Chawke told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he had no difficulty giving IR£2,500 in cash — his share of a £22,500 whip- round among friends in late 1993 — to help Bertie Ahern with his marital separation legal fees.

The Mahon Tribunal has been told that Bertie Ahern at first refused to accept so-called "dig-out" money from friends to help pay his marriage separation legal costs.

FOR sentimental reasons, Maureen Gunne told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday she has kept Bertie Ahern’s personal cheque for €5,914 — the proceeds of a loan, plus interest — given to the Taoiseach by her late husband Fintan 13 years earlier.

A DIRECTOR of NCB Stockbrokers told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he and a senior colleague were “not particularly happy” a bogus invoice was used to make a payment linked to Bertie Ahern.

The financial director of NCB Stockbrokers has said he only discovered during a TV interview last year involving the Taoiseach that money intended for Bertie Ahern's constituency office was a personal donation.

YOU don’t know who your friends are until the chips are down — but unfortunately for Bertie Ahern the chips in question are the ones earmarked for that mysterious Phoenix Park casino scheme.

BERTIE AHERN last night angrily denied his premiership was becoming paralysed due to the amount of time he is being forced to devote to the Mahon corruption probe.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is expected to face a grilling in the Dáil today over the controversy surrounding the casino project mooted for the Phoenix Park in the 1990s.

Lodgments, loans and lost friendships — the Mahon Planning Tribunal has turned the spotlight on a series of puzzling events before Christmas 1993, reports Conor Ryan

A FORMER director of NCB Stockbrokers told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he believed a £5,000 company payment made to Bertie Ahern 14 years ago was a political donation.

IN ITS current line of investigation the planning tribunal has turned to one man to explain Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s complicated finances.