Mahon to decide on fairness of questioning

THE Mahon Tribunal is to decide today on an application by Bertie Ahern’s legal team that has alleged the Taoiseach was being unfairly treated at the Dublin Castle inquiry.

Yesterday, tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon rejected a plea by Conor Maguire SC for an immediate decision during the examination of Mr Ahern about his personal finances in the early 1990s.

In a blistering attack on the questioning of the Taoiseach, Mr Maguire said that every day the tribunal sat revealed another intrusion into Mr Ahern’s personal finance accounts.

In doing so, said counsel, the tribunal moved farther away from hearsay allegations made against Mr Ahern.

Earlier, Mr Maguire complained of “procedural unfairness” in not being furnished with all relevant documentation relating to contacts the tribunal made with a number of stockbroking firms seeking details of political donations they may have made.

The legal issue arose after intense tribunal probing into a disputed £5,000 contribution — part of the so-called “dig-out” from Mr Ahern’s friends that was intended to help pay legal bills arising from his marital separation in late 1993.

According to Mr Ahern, this money was a personal donation from Padraic O’Connor, the former boss of NCB Stockbrokers, but Mr O’Connor has testified he was not Mr Ahern’s friend and that the money was a political contribution by NCB.

Tribunal lawyer Des O’Neill SC recalled that Mr O’Connor believed when the request was made to him that other stockbroking firms had been approached and asked to contribute to the running of Mr Ahern’s constituency office.

Mr O’Neill said the tribunal had made inquiries to a number of such firms and they said they had not been approached.

Davy Stockbrokers said they had given £5,000 the previous year — 1992 — and, according to their records, the cheque was cashed on January 28, 1993.

The Taoiseach said this donation related to the November 1992 general election.