‘You are trying to stitch me up’

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday accused lawyers for the Mahon Tribunal of trying “to set me up and 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.