£8,000 won on horses put into daughters’ accounts

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he won £8,000 gambling on horses in 1996 and lodged the sterling sum into the bank account of his daughters, Cecelia and Georgina.

Giving evidence in the Mahon tribunal yesterday for the first time since resigning as taoiseach, Mr Ahern explained that the £8,000 paid into his daughters’ accounts were the result of successful bets placed on horses in Britain.

He was responding to questions on whether he was involved in any sterling transactions greater than £1,000 in the 1990s, other than the lodgments totalling £15,450 in 1994, which were being probed by the inquiry.

“I do have a recollection of having a few good wins over the years including one or two successful bets in 1996. I am certain that I lodged these 1996 winnings, the proceeds of which were in sterling, into my daughters’ accounts,” he said.

The tribunal heard details of a letter received from Mr Ahern on April 18, 2008, two weeks after announcing he would step down from the office of taoiseach.

The letter was in response to a number of questions sent to him by the inquiry in March following newly discovered documents and information provided by the Irish Life and Permanent building society.

The documents showed that a total sum of £15,450 was lodged into the bank account of Mr Ahern and those of his two daughters on three occasions in 1994.

Mr Ahern said up to £13,000 of the £15,450 lodged into his bank accounts in 1994 came from his income as a public representative, which he had converted into sterling.

“The remaining funds constituted sterling amounts accumulated over a number of years in connection with trips to the UK and also the balance of sums won in sporting bets,” he said.

He said his income was changed from punts to sterling through an “informal” arrangement with his friend and Manchester-based businessman, Tim Kilroe. Mr Ahern said he was saving the sterling he bought for an investment in an apartment in Salford Quay, Manchester.

“I began to set aside cash for my salary cheques in an effort to raise the funds for the initial stake,” he said.

“Within that time period, on approximately six occasions I exchanged Irish punt amounts with sterling with Mr Tom Kilroe. Each transaction involved sums of between £2,000 and £3,000.

“I do not believe that any individual transaction exceeded £3,000 to the best of my memory.

“Eventually I concluded that I would not be in a position to participate in the investment through lack of funds. I retained the sterling amount in my safe and I now assume I subsequently lodged the amount into my own and my daughters’ accounts in 1994,” he said.

Mr Ahern concluded that: “The lodgments that are being inquired into by the tribunal are all derived from my salary and expenses as a public representative.

“No one donated the money to me, no one paid the money to me, no one lent the money to me. It was money I had earned with the addition of some money won in bets.”

Mr Ahern accepted that evidence he gave to the tribunal in February this year about lodgments to his Irish Permanent account in Drumcondra, Dublin, in 1994, was incorrect.

Counsel for the tribunal Des O’Neill asked why he had not previously told the tribunal that he had been saving money in sterling.

Mr Ahern replied that he recalled that he had sterling but he did not think he ever lodged it. “I thought I’d used it up over the years.”