Ahern denies Wall bought house on his behalf

FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern has denied any suggestion that he used a Manchester-based businessman Michael Wall as a front to buy his home in Dublin in the mid-1990s.

Mr Ahern also told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that he was unaware until recently that his friend had left him the house at Beresford Avenue in Drumcondra in a will drawn up in 1996.

However, such an inheritance never arose after Mr Ahern agreed to buy the house from the Mayo-born businessman for £180,000 in 1997.