In his own words: the house that Bertie bought
He goes on to say that the allegations made against him at the Mahon Tribunal by property developer Tom Gilmartin are false and malicious.
He proceeds to his personal finances, summarising that “there is no pattern over many years or decades in high office of unexplained financial transactions” and adds: “My life-style is as simple as it is honest. There was and is no vast wealth and no high life-style.” He describes the recent leaks as malicious and says he has no doubt “that the motivation behind these leaks is political”, being published “in an effort to discredit me and to damage Fianna Fáil”. He then goes into detail about the eventual purchase of his house at Beresford. An edited version of this follows:
As everyone is now aware, my marital separation proceedings concluded in December 1993. During 1994 I decided that I would rent a house of my own. I had been in unsettled circumstances for some time, and wanted to settle things down. In this period I was living in a flat at the FF constituency office in St Luke’s, Drumcondra Road.
At about the same time, Mr Michael Wall, a friend from my visits to Manchester, was planning to buy a house in Dublin… I was looking to rent a place. He was looking to buy a place that he could occasionally stay in. A mutually convenient arrangement was agreed whereby I could rent a house from him and he could stay with me whenever he wanted. I was very busy at the time, as I was Minister for Finance, so I asked my then partner, Celia Larkin, to make the necessary arrangements with Mr Wall...
In November 1994, I was elected leader of FF following the resignation of Albert Reynolds. It seemed that I would be elected Taoiseach and that the FF/ Labour Government would continue.
I wanted a house urgently because during the 1992 Fianna Fáil leadership campaign, remarks had been made about the fact that I did not have a permanent residence. In 1994, I was determined that similar issues would not arise…
I therefore moved to rent the house and I made an arrangement with Mr Wall that I would have of buying it at a later stage.
The house which Mr Wall had selected had been seen by Ms Larkin, and it appeared that, although it was quite a new house, an amount of work should be done to it...
As it was Mr Wall’s house, Mr Wall said that he would, broadly speaking, pay for the structural work and fittings and I would pay for matters such as the furnishings...
Mr Wall put down a booking deposit on the house at the start of December. Several days later, he was visiting Dublin to attend a constituency function on the first weekend in December, so we met at that time.
This meeting between Mr Wall, Ms Larkin and I took place on Saturday 3 December 1994 in my constituency office. He gave me the money towards the refurbishment and related expenses and the stamp duty. The money came to about £28,700, mostly in sterling though there may have been some Irish pounds as well...
That £28,700 or so was also to be used to pay the stamp duty which Mr Wall would have to pay when the purchase of the house was finalised…
For a day or two, I held the money in the safe in my office in Drumcondra. Next Monday Ms Larkin lodged it into an account she opened for the purpose of holding Mr Wall’s money separate from other money, so that it could be used for matters relating only to the house.
Ms Larkin also opened another account which was a 28 day fixed term account. I transferred £50,000 into this new account from my own bank accounts. This account related to the refurbishment of the house and related expenses. This money was comprised of elements of my savings, gifts and loans which I described last year. I can confirm that this was not a new sum of money. This £50,000 is money I disclosed to the public last September / October. It is not a separate or additional sum. Ms Larkin found that the bank account into which she had lodged my own money was not convenient because it was a 28-day fixed term deposit account. The money was transferred to an ordinary deposit account from which it was subsequently withdrawn.
As matters transpired, I did not become Taoiseach in December 1994 and the urgency went out of the situation...
Mr Wall bought the house for £138,000, paid for it in the normal way, by a combination of deposits and a mortgage.
The rental went ahead as did the refurbishment.
I rented the house from the summer of 1995. Substantial refurbishment work was done as planned...
1. The total amount of money spent on works and refurbishment was over £50,000.
2. In addition, £8,442 of Mr Wall’s money was passed on by Ms Larkin to pay Mr Wall’s stamp duty bill.
3. The balance of Mr Wall’s £28,700 or so was spent as part of the total cost of works and refurbishment and related expenses of about £50,000.
4. Of the £50,000 I had set aside, only £30,000 was spent, allowing me to re-lodge about £20,000 to my own accounts after all the work was finished in December 1995.
It has been said that it is not credible that so much money would be spent in the house. Therefore, in order to clarify this point I am circulating a booklet of papers comprising various invoices and receipts indicating how this money was spent...
The lodgement on 5 December 1994 was not a dollar lodgement...
The lodgement of about £28,700 on 5 December 1994 was a cash lodgement which is not exactly £30,000 sterling but rather is a lesser sum and may have been a mixture of sterling and Irish pounds...
I never had $45,000 either then, before then or since. There are no dollar transactions in my accounts. I do not deal nor have I ever dealt in dollars...
[Also] at the appropriate AIB rate for dollars on that date, a lodgement of £28,772.90 would equate not to $45,000 but to $44,277.68.
In 1997 I was elected Taoiseach. My financial situation had settled... I therefore bought the house for €180,000 in October 1997. My purchase of my home was financed by a mortgage of £150,000 from the Irish Permanent Building Society, the balance of £30,000 was financed from accumulated savings in a savings account with that Society.
This was based on a market valuation from an auctioneer who had put the open market value at about £185,000...
Mr Wall made a supplementary Irish will, dealing only with this house, in addition to his main will, in which he left considerable property to his family. I did not know about this will last October It was only brought to my attention earlier this year...
The fact is that I actually bought the house in 1997. I did not inherit it. I exercised the agreed option.
Conclusion: In political debate, robust exchanges are par for the course. I accept that as a fact of life. But what I don’t accept is the trawling through my family, matrimonial and personal circumstances. My family have suffered from the tactic of selective disclosure and the publication of half-truths…
Finally let me state unequivocally: I have done nothing wrong and I have wronged no one.”
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