Ahern: Not enough time to ‘save’ secretary

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern angrily rejected a suggestion that he was wrong to claim last May that the Mahon tribunal had not given him information about sterling lodgments that could have saved his former secretary, Gráinne Carruth, from returning to give evidence.

Mr Ahern also declared he was willing to fight the tribunal’s legal team “tooth and nail” in any forum on the issue, and stated that he did not have sufficient time to reply to the tribunal’s inquiry before Ms Carruth was recalled.

Ms Carruth broke down on March 19 during her second appearance at Dublin Castle as she was forced to concede that she had made sterling lodgments to Mr Ahern’s account at the Irish Permanent in Drumcondra.

The tribunal heard yesterday that its legal team wrote to Mr Ahern on March 6 to confirm that several lodgments to accounts belonging to him and his daughters in 1994 were based on sterling transactions worth £15,450.

Both Mr Ahern and Ms Carruth had previously maintained that they had never dealt in sterling.

However, during a television interview with RTÉ’s Bryan Dobson on May 4, Mr Ahern was asked why he didn’t tell the tribunal that there was no need to recall evidence from Ms Carruth as he could explain the sterling lodgments. “If they had bothered to ask or tell me the information I would have done that,” replied Mr Ahern to the journalist.

Questioned about this yesterday, Bertie Ahern denied the suggestion by tribunal barrister Des O’Neill that it was “totally untrue” on the basis he was aware of the sterling payments since March 6. “It’s not right,” said Mr Ahern.

He claimed the time between the March 6 letter and Ms Carruth’s appearance before the tribunal 13 days later was “an intense period”. Mr Ahern pointed out that during those days he was dealing with lengthy correspondence from the tribunal and his own legal team as well as preparing for a cabinet meeting, Dáil questions, an EU council meeting in Brussels and the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to the US.

He also emphasised that he was faced with a situation where the Irish Permanent had changed its position after three-and-a-half years of claiming it had no records about his accounts in 1994.

“I just did not have the time. And before I got back to you with your usual efficiency and with your large amount of staff, your huge legal team had Gráinne Carruth in here trying to hang her,” said Mr Ahern angrily.

He added later: “You had a witness in here before I could get back. That did not give me sufficient time.”

Mr Ahern said it was “absolutely impossible” to have dealt with the issue within the given timeframe. During sharp exchanges, he told Mr O’Neill that they could argue all day about the matter. “But I won’t change Mr O’Neill, to be quite frank with you, because I feel sore about this and you know I feel sore about this.

“I think it was unreasonable. If you want to justify your existence and say that you were right I’ll fight you tooth and nail, in here and outside, that you’re wrong.”

The public gallery erupted with laughter when Mr Ahern pleaded: “I didn’t start this.

“If Mr O’Neill has nothing else to do but go through all of the interviews that I make to journalists and pick out one line and try to present that I was misleading the tribunal, well, then this is a sad place.”

Earlier, a tax consultant said that he advised Mr Ahern that he had no tax liability arising out of £38,500 he had received in dig-out loans from friends and £8,000 in donations from Manchester businessmen between 1993 and 1994.

Noel Corcoran said he explained to Mr Ahern in 2000 that he would have no tax liability if the goodwill loans were repaid with interest. He also advised that no tax liability arose from the Manchester donations because of their size and because Mr Ahern was unaware of the identity of the donors. However, Mr Corcoran was not informed by Mr Ahern that the loans had not been repaid.