Ahern to face more questions from Mahon tribunal

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will return to the Mahon Tribunal early next week to face further questions on his financial affairs during the 1990s.

In his third day in the witness box, the Fianna Fáil party leader denied he tried to hide money from the anti-corruption inquiry by failing to fully disclose his personal bank account records.

The tribunal, sitting at Dublin Castle, is painstakingly probing a complex tangle of transactions between 1994 and 1995 which total more than £75,000.

After six hours of testimony today, tribunal barrister Des O'Neill indicated that he required more time to examine the Taoiseach.

The inquiry is expected to set aside time on Monday to accommodate Mr Ahern, who appeared today before a packed 200-seat public gallery and about 100 journalists.

Tribunal counsel Mr O'Neill earlier claimed that Mr Ahern failed to comply with a legal order to disclose all banking records relevant to the inquiry's investigations.

But Mr Ahern insisted that he had carried out an extensive trawl of his personal papers with his lawyers and that he was satisfied that he had fully declared all documentation.

He said: "I wasn't hiding anything. Any questions that ever came up, I answered them."

The Fianna Fáil party leader told the three-judge Tribunal, sitting at Dublin Castle, that his busy public lifestyle made it difficult to remember specific events or track the flow of money in and out of accounts operated by him or on his behalf.

He said he travelled 120,000 miles during 1995 and 1996 as Opposition leader in a bid to reorganise his party after it was "chucked" out of Government.

Mr Ahern spent two days in the witness box on Thursday and Friday of last week.

Mr Ahern also told the tribunal that he could not recall how or where he purchased £30,000 in the 1990s.

The former accountant said the money was purchased to return to his friend, Manchester-based businessman Michael Wall.

Mr Wall had planned to purchase a house in north Dublin and later rent it out to Mr Ahern.

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said that purchasing that amount of money was something that one would be unlikely to forget.

He asked Mr Ahern if he had made advance arrangements with a bank to purchase the sum of sterling.

The Taoiseach replied: "That's part of my difficulty in trying to track down the amount - whether I did it through instalments or whether I did it through the bank at all."

He added: "I would have been out around the country and would have given it to somebody to do it on my behalf."

At one point in the proceedings, Mr Ahern to applause: "I am sure there are some mornings that you get up and you think I might do this or I might do that, and then you don't do them, so it is hard to remember."

Judge Mahon interjected: "I have to remind members of the public that you are not allowed to clap."

However the gallery immediately applauded his comments.

The state's ethics body yesterday confirmed that it would not be investigating Mr Ahern's personal finances because it did not have a remit under current legislation.

The Standards in Public Office Commission said it had received complaints from two members of the public.