Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has told the Mahon tribunal today he did not use money he had saved in the late 1980s and early 1990s to pay £19,000 as part of his marital separation because he had pledged to put money aside for his daughters.
In sharp exchanges at Dublin Castle shortly before lunch today, Mr Ahern told tribunal counsel Des O'Neill that some things were none of "your damned business".
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, at the Mahon tribunal
Mr O'Neill had earlier said he would not inquire into the details of Mr Ahern's marital situation but that he would need to raise certain issues because they related to the transactions being inquired into by the tribunal.
Mr Ahern was asked why, when he had saved an estimated £54,000 in cash in his safes in his ministerial office and at his constituency office St Luke's, he took out a loan to pay three sums totalling £19,115.97 in December 1993.
The sum was made up of £1,302.36 to pay off his wife Miriam's car loan, £12,813.61 to pay his own legal team and £5,000 as a contribution towards his wife's counsel, Mr Ahern said.
He told Mr O'Neill he did not use the cash he had saved because he had promised to use £20,000 to pay for his daughters' education and that the money "was not available to me".
That money had been paid to Bruce College and to the Institute of Education in Tallaght, and to pay for clothes for his daughters while they were in college, he said.
Mr Ahern said if he had used the remaining £30,000 to pay the £19,000 owed it would have left him with just £10,000 and he was also conscious that he needed to think about buying a house at that time.
Mr O'Neill pointed out that, in fact, Mr Ahern did not lodge the £20,000 to an account on behalf of his daughters until August 1994. The Taoiseach lost his temper when pressed on why he didn't use the cash he had saved.
The Taoiseach said he didn't use it because "I had a commitment to my wife and children" to put £20,000 into an account, and that the money was clearly linked in his mind to that commitment.
He had saved it from the time he was Dublin's lord mayor through to the time of his separation.
"It wasn't available to me. It wasn't, because I had it designated and clearly linked in my mind and a commitment to give to my daughters. And that was what I'd saved it for. I had saved it since 1987 through the whole period of my separation which I don't think is any of your damn business. I saved it!" Mr Ahern said.
Earlier, Mr Ahern told the tribunal how he had use of a small apartment above his constituency office at St Luke's in Drumcondra on which he paid a "nominal" rent. He had a letting agreement for the upper level of the building for a number of years, he said.
The accommodation consisted of a "sitting room" and a small kitchen area which were used for meetings and were "really part of the office".
"It's a meeting room. Well, if you come up to this evening when we're finished here they have the Christmas party there. Other than that - it would be a good party by the way - but...for the rest of the year it's a meeting room."
Separate to that, there was a toilet, a shower and bedroom - the area over which he had control, he said.
St Luke's was an active public office used by himself for constituency business and also by senators and councillors and for Fianna Fáil business, Mr Ahern said.
Mr Ahern was asked this morning about the sums he says were personal loans to him from friends in 1993 and 1994 - and whether these individuals had ever offered in 1987 to help him out by loaning money towards the purchase of a house.
"Did any of them suggest or indicate to you that they would provide you with money to acquire another dwelling house, now that you'd ceased to live in [the family home] in Malahide?" Mr O'Neill asked.
Mr Ahern replied: "Not in 87."
So they were aware of the fact that you had undergone this separation and you had no home to live in at the time, isn't that right? Yes.
"Not in 1987, no," Mr Ahern said. Asked if he had received any "financial dig-out or financial contribution" from his friends to meet the costs associated with his separation in 1987, Mr Ahern said he had not.
He is expected to be questioned further about each of the individual amounts which he says make up the so called dig-outs during his testimony tomorrow.