Ahern ‘kept bundle of cash more than inch thick in office’

WHEN he was finance minister, Bertie Ahern kept a bundle of cash of more than an inch thick in a plastic folder in his government office, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

His private secretary Brendan Ward could not say how much money the banker’s pouch contained.

“I made a rule for myself that I would not take it out or count it. I could see there was cash in it,” he said. Mr Ward, who joined the National Economic and Social Council in 2002 and is head of administration there, became Mr Ahern’s private secretary in November 1991 when he became finance minister. Between 1998 and 2002 he was the private secretary while Mr Ahern was Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach has claimed he kept IR£20,000 cash in his Department of Finance office and £30,000 in his constituency office at St Luke’s in Drumcondra. He said he had saved the £50,000 between 1987 and 1994. When an official told him Mr Ahern did not have a bank account at the time, Mr Ward said he was “surprised” to learn the politician worked on a cash basis.

Pressed if he knew how much cash the bundle contained, Mr Ward said he did not see the denominations of the notes: “I saw the edges of the notes. That’s as much as I saw. My only concern was that it was there and did not get lost.”

Replying to Mr Ahern’s lawyer Conor Maguire SC, Mr Ward said he was employed as a civil servant and would not have dealt with Mr Ahern’s private affairs.

Sandra Cullagh, who came to work for Mr Ahern in 1983 and was employed at St Luke’s, said she could not say how much money was on a shelf in the safe. “It was just money on a shelf,” she said. “I never touched the monies. I saw there was money there. I couldn’t say how much.”