‘You are trying to stitch me up’
He said it was “unbelievable” to suggest he had entered into a conspiracy with Allied Irish Banks over a loan he took out for more than £19,000 in late 1993. He was responding to a suggestion by tribunal lawyer Des O’Neill SC that he might have got the loan if he agreed to lodge a similar amount with the bank later. Tribunal counsel suggested the bank knew the money was coming when it advanced the loan, effectively a back-to-back loan.
At the time, Mr Ahern had raised more than £50,000 cash in savings over the seven years from his separation in 1987. He said he kept this money in his government office and at his Dublin Central constituency office in Drumcondra.
The Taoiseach’s lawyer, Conor Maguire SC, said he had a very serious objection to the approach being taken by the tribunal legal team. Mr Maguire said the tribunal was putting forward a hypothesis or scenario that was “fanciful” and not “rooted in evidence”. And it was clearly in breach of Mr Ahern’s constitutional right to fair procedure.
However, Mr O’Neill said there was a difference between the tribunal adopting a position and it exploring “possible alternatives”.
Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said tribunal counsel was putting to Mr Ahern “what is a possible scenario given the documentation that we have from the bank and also the lack of documentation”.
“It doesn’t mean that that case is being put to him. In other words, it’s not being suggested to him that this is what the evidence shows. It’s a possible outcome that is based on the evidence and the documentation and questioning. And it’s a matter for Mr Ahern then to reject that scenario as being impossible or not realistic.”
The argument broke out when Mr O’Neill noted the absence of any documentation for setting up the £19,000 loan — when his actual financial assets exceeded that loan by a multiple. He had taken out the loan on unusual terms — no capital repayments and no interest repayments for 18 months.
Mr Ahern said he had not begun to repay the loan until the bank “came after me about it” and he started repaying in summer 1995 over seven months.
The Taoiseach has told the tribunal he went to the AIB branch in O’Connell Street, Dublin, on December 23 — the month after his legal separation.
He said he took out the £19,000 loan to pay legal costs connected with the separation. He agreed there was no security sought or repayment terms set out.
A British forensic analyst hired by the tribunal found “strong evidence” the date was altered — from December 14 to December 23 — on documentation relating to Mr Ahern’s special savings account (SSA) to which £22,500 was lodged.
Mr O’Neill then put forward the “scenario” that Mr Ahern had gone into the bank earlier than he said. But Mr Ahern said he wasn’t given the £22,500 — the so-called first goodwill loan from friends earmarked for his legal bill — until December 28.
Mr Ahern said the loan of £19,115 was used to pay his separated wife’s car loan and legal costs arising out of the separation.
The Taoiseach pointed out the disputed date on the SSA document was not in his handwriting.
The tribunal’s probe into the sources of Mr Ahern’s personal finances arises from an allegation by developer Tom Gilmartin that he was told by Cork-based developer Owen O’Callaghan he gave bribes of £50,000 and £20,000 to Mr Ahern to assist the Quarryvale project in West Dublin.
Both Mr Ahern and Mr O’Callaghan reject the allegations.
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