‘Sorry if it doesn’t suit you, Mr O’Neill’

IN the first of increasingly tetchy and bad-tempered exchanges, tribunal senior counsel Des O’Neill asked Bertie Ahern why he didn’t operate a bank account between 1987 and 1993, when his legal separation from his wife came through.

Mr O’Neill: I should say, Mr Chairman, I am seeking to elicit a definitive response to the question as to why it is that Mr Ahern did not open bank accounts. And as of yet I do not have an answer other that it was easier… to do so.

Mr Ahern: Chairman, if I can answer. I have no problem with answering the questions. But what you are trying to do Mr O’Neill? You have a form of life. You believe that it should be this way. And when I tell you it’s not that way you don’t accept it. I can only tell you from me. I was separated. The accounts were in my wife’s name. I had the cheques. You know and that’s what I did.