Public grillings still await

HE MAY have weathered opposition questioning in the Dáil well but the grilling is far from over for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who still faces probes in three other forums when he leaves office on May 6.

The Mahon Tribunal, Revenue Commissioners and Standards in Public Office Commission are all investigating his financial affairs in inquiries that are likely to run well into next year at the earliest.

The direction of the latter two hinge on the findings of Judge Mahon who is expected to deliver his report at the end of this year although that will be a tough deadline to meet.

Revenue officials are watching the proceedings in Dublin Castle closely. With testimony to date that he received gifts of money which went undeclared and had sterling lodgments in his accounts at a time when he insisted his only income was his pay cheques, there is mounting evidence that he had tax liabilities which he did not discharge.

With additional questions arising over the ownership of his house and the benefits that accrued to him from it, the onus is on him to prove everything was legitimate from a taxation point of view and Revenue will be hard to convince.

The Standards Commission is acting on a complaint by Fine Gael that if the Taoiseach was not tax compliant when he filed certificate of tax clearance after the 2002 general election as ethics laws require, then he would have been guilty of such a serious breach of those laws and should have been removed from office.

With the commission awaiting the opinion of Revenue which is awaiting the conclusion of Mahon, Mr Ahern can to some extent put two out of the three inquiries on a longish finger.

What he can’t do is get out of Mahon. At the moment he is listed to appear next at the tribunal “not before May 20”.

He will have to be ready for the May date in the knowledge that if he falls at the hurdle of this inquiry, he hasn’t a hope of clearing the two to follow.