Account 'polar opposite' of earlier explanation

Cash transactions:The latest explanation Bertie Ahern has given for a £50,000 cash withdrawal from his account is the "polar opposite" of an earlier explanation he has given, according to a tribunal judge.

Judge Mary Faherty said the explanation Mr Ahern gave in a statement last week for the withdrawal in January 1995 was "entirely different" from the one given to the tribunal before this.

Up to last week, she said, Mr Ahern had indicated the reason he withdrew the money was to allow his then partner Celia Larkin and businessman Michael Wall "do all the running" in an arrangement whereby Mr Wall would buy and refurbish a house in Drumcondra which Mr Ahern would rent.

However, in last week's statement, Mr Ahern revealed for the first time that he intended walking away from the project, she pointed out.

Mr Ahern said yesterday he doesn't remember why he decided to take out all the £50,000 but he did recall the events which might have led him to do so. Between the end of 1994 and the start of 1995, his circumstances changed greatly. In December 1994 he was within a weekend of becoming taoiseach but this didn't happen. The fact that he wasn't to become taoiseach meant there was less urgency to complete the house arrangement with Mr Wall.

If he were to become taoiseach he wanted his own residence rather than sleeping in his constituency office or with friends, but now as leader of Fianna Fáil he was travelling 120,000 miles a year around the country rebuilding the party and was seldom at home.

If he did go ahead with the refurbishment, this would only happen if he made the money available to Ms Larkin. If he was going to be away all the time, it was better to have the money available in cash so she could get it.

However, Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, pointed out that the money was taken out of Ms Larkin's account and moved to Mr Ahern's safe in his constituency office, to which she did not have access. Mr Ahern denied this proved an impediment to her accessing the money. However, he agreed that at one stage she had to obtain a loan for £3,000 to pay off one of the bills on the refurbishment.

He said he thought about getting out of the deal with Mr Wall altogether. After it became clear he wasn't going to be taoiseach, he wondered whether to continue renting a house which had problems in relation to location and security. The matter wasn't at the top of his mind in January 1995 because of his other duties.

Mr Ahern said he was comfortable taking the money out in cash. He didn't have a problem with cash, and he had a secure safe in his constituency office.

In response to repeated questions on the issue, Mr Ahern at one stage expressed the hope, to applause from a section of the public gallery, that developer Tom Gilmartin would get the same grilling as he was getting at the tribunal.

The Taoiseach said he hadn't mentioned before that he had considered withdrawing from the deal because he didn't think it was of any great relevance. He had no ulterior motive in doing so.

While he had decided not to go ahead with the deal, he did not discuss it with others. Ms Larkin and Mr Wall were aware that he was looking at other houses but he didn't tell them the deal was over.

In April 1995 Mr Wall was involved in a serious car accident after which Mr Ahern decided to go ahead with the arrangement for the house, which he later bought from the businessman.

Earlier, Mr Ahern said he didn't recall that he had purchased £30,000 in sterling in early 1995 until he was being interviewed by tribunal lawyers earlier this year.

Asked what had prompted his recollection, he said he had had suspicions before but had no bank documentation to back these up. He still couldn't remember whether he had withdrawn the cash himself or got someone else to do it.

Judge Mahon said the very act of buying stg£30,000 must have been a unique event in Mr Ahern's life, and was surely one he wouldn't have forgotten.

"Would you not have to notify the bank in advance of the purchase of such a large sum of sterling?" asked Judge Gerald Keys.

Mr Ahern agreed you couldn't just walk in and change such a large sum of money but said he may have got someone else to do it for him.

Mr O'Neill said it was only during his interview last April that Mr Ahern had first revealed that all five transactions under scrutiny involved a sterling element. He pointed out that AIB staff who gave evidence had told the tribunal they had no recollection of any of these sterling transactions. AIB had been unable to confirm that any sterling amounts had been transacted in the bank.