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.