TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was yesterday at a loss to explain crucial details about payments amounting to about IR£25,000 from friends and businessmen during the 1990s.

SPARKS flew at the Mahon Planning Tribunal yesterday when Bertie Ahern’s lawyer, Colm O hOisin SC, accused the inquiry of “pushing an agenda” in the examination of the Taoiseach’s bank accounts.

The Mahon Tribunal will hear further evidence from AIB staff today before closing down for its summer holidays.

AIB official Jim McNamara had “no explanation” yesterday for telling the Mahon Tribunal in June 2006 he was unaware Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s former partner Celia Larkin handled large cash transactions at his Dublin branch.

The Mahon Tribunal was today shown files belonging to an AIB official indicating that he was investigating foreign exchange transactions, at the behest of the Taoiseach, in 2005.

This morning's sitting of the Mahon Tribunal has been cancelled because of the illness of key witness Tom Gilmartin.

The Taoiseach is defending the contact he made with an AIB official inquiring about transactions under investigation by the Mahon Tribunal.

GAA PRESIDENT Sean Kelly last night paid tribute to the “wonderful commitment of the grassroots members of the Association.”

GARDAÍ have closed the investigation into the death of a man found lying in his home with a butcher’s knife embedded in his chest.