Richardson cannot remember 30 donors

A FIANNA Fáil fundraiser has told the Mahon Tribunal that he cannot remember the identity of up to 30 people who agreed to fund the purchase of Bertie Ahern’s constituency office in 1987.

The tribunal has heard evidence that a decision was taken at a meeting in the Gresham Hotel in December 1997 by a group of 20-30 people to contribute money towards the purchase of a property in Drumcondra for the benefit of Fianna Fáil in the Dublin Central constituency.

However, the inquiry has so far been unable to obtain any records which show the source of a £56,000 sum which paid for the acquisition of St Luke’s.

Party fundraiser and St Luke’s trustee, Des Richardson, told the tribunal yesterday that the group who met in the Gresham on December 3, 1997, initially planned to get a loan to buy a property for the constituency and pay it off by having 25 people contribute £1,000 per annum for five years.

But the businessman said he was unable to recall the identity of anyone at the Gresham meeting, which numbered up to 30 people.

Mr Richardson said a number of people at the meeting had agreed to put up £10,000 each immediately to buy the house on the basis they would subsequently be given back some of their donation “as the money came in”.

However, tribunal barrister Des O’Neill pointed out that there was no evidence of a sum of around £60,000 passing through any account related to St Luke’s.

Mr Richardson said he might have made a financial contribution himself towards the purchase of St Luke’s but he could not recollect if that was so “at this remove in time”.

He also acknowledged that his name and those of St Luke’s trustees, Tim Collins and Joe Burke, were also on a memorandum of agreement to buy the property, which was signed on November 19, 1987.

Mr Richardson accepted that he wasn’t a trustee of St Luke’s on that date. He added: “I can assure you I didn’t buy it personally.”

However, he also claimed that he had no recollection of who was involved in the decision to buy St Luke’s. Mr Richardson said his only role in the document was that he had been asked to sign it by a legal adviser.

At one stage Mr Richardson’s barrister, Jim O’Callaghan BL, asked the tribunal to make a ruling on the relevance of the questioning of his client about St Luke’s.

Mr O’Callaghan complained that the issue which related to the acquisition of the property in 1987 could have no bearing on the allegation that Mr Ahern had received money from property developer, Owen O’Callaghan in the mid-1990s.

However Mr O’Neill said the tribunal had to examine several unexplained payments as it seemed that accounts in Dublin Central were being run independently of the constituency organisation for the use of Mr Ahern.

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said the three-person inquiry were satisfied that the questioning of Mr Richardson was within its terms of reference.

Judge Mahon said the establishment and the operation of such accounts were “clearly relevant”.