An unsigned memo found in St Luke's is helpful to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, writes Colm Keena
YESTERDAY'S PROCEEDINGS at the tribunal constituted a good day for former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and provided ammunition for his argument that he is not being treated fairly.
In the course of recent evidence, questions have been raised as to who owns St Luke's and how was its purchase funded.
But yesterday former attorney general David Byrne SC referred to a document that had not been mentioned before at the tribunal, and that lends weight to the evidence given by Ahern's associates Joe Burke, Tim Collins and Des Richardson, who are the surviving trustees of St Luke's.
Both Richardson and Burke have said the money for St Luke's was raised from people who attended a meeting in the Gresham Hotel on December 3rd, 1987, but the unspoken concern had been left hanging that there may not, in fact, have been any such meeting.
But yesterday it was disclosed that a minute of the Gresham Hotel meeting exists, taken at the time by the late solicitor Gerry Brennan. Brennan was a friend of Ahern's and acted in the purchase of St Luke's.
The minute was not displayed at yesterday's hearing but Byrne said it recorded the meeting resolving that the money to be raised from the attendance would be used to buy St Luke's in trust for the local Fianna Fáil organisation and Fianna Fáil nationally. Byrne was of the view that this resolve by the attendance in itself "creates a trust".
It is not known who supplied the Brennan minute to the tribunal or when.
No trust deed establishing a trust was ever created but Brennan did have the trustees sign a declaration of trust which stated that they were holding St Luke's in trust for Fianna Fáil. Byrne said it was "absolutely clear" from the documents that St Luke's was held in trust for Fianna Fáil.
In 1997, in the immediate run-up to the general election campaign, Byrne was engaged by Brennan and Ahern to draft a report that would cover the acquisition and ownership of St Luke's. All the information Byrne was given came from Brennan and Ahern.
He was not shown the minutes of the Gresham Hotel meeting.
Byrne's report referred to the meeting and an arrangement whereby those in attendance agreed to contribute £1,000 a year each for four or five years, to fund the purchase and renovation of St Luke's. The money was to be lodged into an account called the CODR account.
Further details of how the financing of St Luke's was accomplished are contained in a memo that was found in St Luke's, along with the Byrne report, by a volunteer activist early this year, two days before Ahern announced his intention to resign.
The memo is addressed to "David/Gerry" and from its text would appear to have been written in 1997. Byrne speculated that the memo was created in response to questions he'd raised in his report, which was a work in progress that was never completed. He was sure he had never seen the memo before.
The memo was read into the record yesterday by Ahern's counsel, Conor Maguire SC. It is very helpful to Ahern's case. It refers to the "building trust" account, the account that is in fact named the B/T account. The tribunal is exploring whether the initials in fact stand for "Bertie and Tim" (Collins) rather than building trust, as contended by Ahern, Collins, Burke and Richardson. The memo also refers to the payment of £30,000 to Celia Larkin from the B/T account, and supports the evidence that the payment was a loan.
The memo is unsigned. Its convenience for Ahern is such that consideration would have to be given to the possibility that it could be a forgery, but in fact other aspects of it are not of assistance to Ahern. It states that lodgements by the donors were made to the CODR account over the years 1987 to 1990, when in fact the bank records do not show this.
The money issue has not been put to bed yet but the ownership one would appear to be sound asleep.