£66-a-week secretary brings down house of cards

IN THE end, Bertie Ahern was laid low by the tale of two secretaries.

The treatment of humble Gráinne Carruth and high-flying Celia Ahern shocked the country — and more importantly the Fianna Fáil grassroots — but for two very different reasons.

As Ms Carruth wept openly in the Mahon corruption probe’s witness box as she begged the judge to let her return home to her children, she triggered an enormous wave of sympathy for the predicament many felt Mr Ahern had placed her in.

Ms Carruth sobbed as her attempts to prop up the Taoiseach’s sworn testimony that only wages cheques had gone into his Irish Permanent accounts, crumbled as readily as her own previous statements on the matter. She left the witness box looking for all the world like a broken woman, crushed under the weight of her loyalty to a former boss. That she was paid a mere £66 a week when she worked for Mr Ahern only added to simmering public anger that this woman had been used as a human shield by the Taoiseach.

The fact that it followed so quickly on from February’s tribunal bombshell that Ms Larkin had been given a £30,000 “loan” to buy a house by Mr Ahern’s Fianna Fáil branch, only compounded the sense of injustice.

The slippery way Mr Ahern at first tried to conceal Ms Larkin’s identity — referring to his then life partner as “a party worker” — only added to the impact when her name was finally dragged from him by tribunal counsel.

The Taoiseach effectively spat her name out under cross-examination, releasing a pulse of energy through the Dublin Castle public and press benches as he did so.

There was no legal paperwork to support it being a “loan” and the money, handed to Ms Larkin in 1993, was only paid back a few weeks before the truth emerged at the tribunal.

Mr Ahern said under oath he had no idea about the financial arrangement until Ms Larkin told him she had bought the house.

Many observers found such a turn of events difficult to believe given that he was the life partner of Ms Larkin at the time, and the way he has always dominated the Fianna Fáil constituency branch that “loaned” such a large chunk of its funds to Ms Larkin.

The matter came under even harsher focus when compared with the treatment of Ms Carruth.

Asked by tribunal counsel why she had not contacted Mr Ahern after being given documentary proof she had lodged the sterling she previously denied being involved with, Ms Carruth lamented: “Because I’m hurt, I’m hurt and I’m upset. I just want to go home.”

Her evidence finally allowed Mr Ahern’s critics to cut through the complexity of the Taoiseach’s tangled finances and present one clear image to the public: he said only wages cheques went into his Irish Permanent accounts and Ms Carruth and the tribunal had proven that in fact £15,500 in sterling had done so.

It was the moment the £66-a-week secretary set Mr Ahern’s delicate house of financial cards trembling — and with them his grip on power.