Taoiseach admits not telling inquiry about transaction
During his third day of evidence at Dublin Castle on his personal finances and foreign exchange transactions, Mr Ahern was quizzed about IR£50,000 of his money withdrawn from partner Celia Larkin’s account in January 1995.
Part of the money was exchanged for sterling to pay back Manchester businessman Michael Wall for refurbishment done on the house he was renting.
Mr Ahern intended buying the house, but abandoned the plan temporarily after the Government collapsed in December 1994 and he failed to become Taoiseach.
The stg£30,000 from the IR£50,000 withdrawn was to pay back Mr Wall, he said. The money eventually was not paid to Mr Wall but used on redecorating Beresford house.
However, Mr Ahern did not tell the tribunal about purchasing the sterling in his original order of discovery. In a letter through his lawyers to the tribunal in February this year, he also failed to notify them about the sterling exchange.
Tribunal barrister Des O’Neill said the letter was an “incomplete account” of what had happened to the IR£50,000.
The information would have helped the tribunal, he added, as it had restarted the money trail.
In a report by his accountant Des Peelo in March, no mention was also given of this extra transaction by Mr Ahern.
Mr Ahern said the stg£30,000 had been in his mind all along but he could not obtain records on it.
“What I am concerned is that I have my facts as best I have, so that I can present them to the tribunal. I wasn’t looking for anything else, other than that I did remember the sterling amount, but in the totality of what I was doing,” he told the tribunal barrister.
However, Judge Alan Mahon said cashing money into stg£30,000 must have been a “unique” event, something Mr Ahern would remember.
The Taoiseach agreed. However, he said that efforts to trace the transaction and its location were still ongoing.
