Byrne says he is certain St Luke's is held for FF's benefit

MAHON TRIBUNAL:FORMER ATTORNEY general David Byrne told the Mahon tribunal yesterday there was "absolutely no doubt" in his mind that St Luke's was held in trust for the use and benefit of Fianna Fáil.

The tribunal was told that Mr Byrne was called to give public evidence, along with two other witnesses, on the request of legal advisers to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Mr Byrne was contacted by the late Gerry Brennan, solicitor to Mr Ahern, in early 1997 to examine documents related to the purchase of St Luke’s, Mr Ahern’s constituency office in Drumcondra, the tribunal heard.

The documents included a deed of assignment made in May 1988 between the previous owner of St Luke’s, Catherine Daly, and the trustees of St Luke’s: Des Richardson, James Keane, Tim Collins, Patrick Reilly and Joe Burke. He also received a declaration of trust, made in May 1988, in which the purchasers declared they were holding St Luke’s as trustees for the benefit of the Fianna Fáil Dublin Central constituency and the party.

Mr Byrne said he understood the documents to be an instruction from Mr Brennan acting on behalf of Mr Ahern.

He said there was a desire to draw all the features of the issue together into one place so that there could be a coherent response if the ownership of St Luke’s was queried by the media. “They wanted to have the mind of a barrister applied to the situation,” he said.

He met Mr Ahern and Mr Brennan in St Luke’s and subsequently produced a draft report, “A Report on the Acquisition, Legal Ownership and Financing of St Luke’s”, on May 6th, 1997, which outlined the legal owners and beneficiaries of St Luke’s.

It also outlined a meeting at the Gresham Hotel in December 1987, at which members of the “St Luke’s Club” pledged to give £1,000 a year for five years to buy the property.

Counsel for the tribunal, Henry Murphy SC, said all of the information contained in the report had been supplied by Mr Brennan and Mr Ahern.

“You had no personal knowledge of these matters?” Mr Murphy asked.

“None,” Mr Byrne replied.

Mr Byrne said the report was “a work in progress” and was never completed because Mr Brennan died a couple of weeks after the meeting.

Counsel for Mr Ahern, Colm Maguire SC, highlighted an undated and unattributed memo, marked for the attention of Mr Byrne and Mr Brennan, which appeared to address some of the issues Mr Byrne had queried. It also called the “B/T Account”, the “building trust account”. Mr Byrne said he had never received the memo.

“Is there any doubt in your mind that the trust had been created, whereby the legal ownership was in the trustees and the beneficial ownership was . . . held for the use and benefit of Fianna Fáil Republican Party in Drumcondra?” Mr Maguire asked.

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever about that, it’s quite clear from the legal documents that’s the case,” Mr Byrne replied.