Ahern £5,000 a 'political donation, for personal use'

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, made a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue Commissioners in 2006 about a £5,000 cheque he used to open a building society account in Drumcondra in January 1994, when he was minister for finance, the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday. Colm Keena , Harry McGee and Fiona Gartland report.

Mr Ahern said he could not recall with certainty who had given the cheque to him. He described it as "a political donation, for my personal use".

He said he and his legal team had "trawled" for the records of the amounts but had not been able to match the £5,000 cheque up with a donor.

He was sure he knew the name of the individual and the company from which it had come. However, although he went back to the company "three or four times", and it was "very helpful", it was not in a position to confirm it was the source of the £5,000.

The head of the company, from whom Mr Ahern believed the money had come, was dead, he told the tribunal.

Mr Ahern indicated that over the years he had on a number of occasions been given personal financial gifts which he had accepted.

"When a company or an individual gives you money which is for your constituency or gives you a donation for a constituency use, my practice is that I give it to my constituency and it's always been my practice. But at times, but not many times, an individual would give you money, and say it is for your personal use."

Mr Ahern said the account was opened with the intention of saving money towards a house, and getting a mortgage from the Irish Permanent. The account had a balance of £38,602 when Mr Ahern used the money to purchase his current home in June 1997.

Tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC said there was no documentary evidence to support Mr Ahern's evidence that the bulk of the lodgements to the account over the years were from his pay cheques as a politician. Mr Ahern said some of the round figure entries were explained by his using cheques to make the round figure lodgements, and taking the difference away in cash.

He said a lodgement of £7,000 was money he got from his late mother, and a lodgement of £5,000 a year and nine months later, in December 1995, may be money he was given by a brother, but which came from his late father's estate.

The tribunal heard that in a report by Mr Ahern's accountant, Des Peelo, the Revenue was told Mr Ahern was making three "additional voluntary disclosures", two being in relation to the two separate £5,000 amounts lodged to his building society account, and a third being £2,500 lodged to a bank account. No details of the latter were disclosed yesterday.

Also yesterday Mr Ahern was asked about a second building society account opened with the Irish Permanent Building Society, Drumcondra, in 1989. This account was opened by Mr Ahern's long-time associate, Tim Collins, who signed a form stating that the money was his and that he was not acting as a nominee.

The name on the account was B/T and the address was care of the branch. There were various lodgements and withdrawals to the account over the years, but there have been no transactions since 1995, the year new legislation came into effect governing the lodgement of political donations by constituency organisations to bank accounts. The current balance on the account is €47,803.

Mr Ahern said the account is a "building trust" account and is a contingency account for use on his constituency centre, St Luke's. He said he had seen statements from the account in St Luke's over the years, and officers of the constituency knew of the existence of the account.

Mr Ahern was asked why the account was not included in an affidavit sworn to the tribunal by him in 2005 and in which 23 family and constituency accounts were listed. He said he had nothing to do with the account, or with lodgements to it or withdrawals from it, so he had not included it. Mr O'Neill asked why a constituency election account had been included in the affidavit, and not the building trust account. "Because it's the general election account that elected me," Mr Ahern replied. The name on the account was changed in January of this year, at Mr Collins's request, the tribunal heard. Mr Ahern resumes his evidence today.

© 2008 The Irish Times

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