No offer of financial help in year of separation

Assistance:Close friends of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern did not offer to give him financial assistance when he separated from his wife in 1987, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.

The tribunal heard that although Mr Ahern's close friends were aware of his separation from Miriam Ahern and of the fact that he did not have anywhere to live, they did not make him any offer of financial help until 1993.

Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said that in 1986, Mr Ahern, then aged 35, was opposition spokesman for labour, lord mayor of Dublin, and had the appearance of being a happily married man.

"By any measure you were a very successful man at that time," Mr O'Neill said.

"Others can decide that," Mr Ahern replied.

He pointed out that he was the only person in the history of the State to have been lord mayor of Dublin and a minister at the same time.

Mr O'Neill said that in early 1987, Mr Ahern had moved out of his marital home in Malahide, Co Dublin.

He said the issue of Mr Ahern's separation would have to be touched on by the tribunal, "not out of any prurient interest", but because the transactions they were examining were all in some way linked to it.

Mr O'Neill said there must have been a certain amount of "distress and turmoil" surrounding the separation after 10 or 11 years of marriage.

Some of their mutual friends must have remained loyal to Mrs Ahern while others remained loyal to Mr Ahern, Mr O'Neill said.

"I tried to avoid pulling friends into it," Mr Ahern said.

Mr O'Neill said that, having left home, Mr Ahern's close friends would have immediately known his marriage had failed, and the knowledge would have "extended outwards" to the wider circle of friends.

Mr O'Neill asked if any of the friends offered him a dig-out or a financial contribution at the time. Mr Ahern said they did not.

He asked if anyone had offered to give him money towards a house. Mr Ahern replied that no one had.

Mr O'Neill then went through a list of the 12 friends who contributed to the two dig-outs to Mr Ahern, in 1993 and 1994, which amounted to £39,000.

The contributors were businessmen Dave McKenna, Michael Collins and Barry English, former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson, Jim Nugent, former chairman of Cert, the late Fintan Gunne, an auctioneer, publican Charlie Chawke, Paddy "the Plasterer" Reilly, the late Paddy Reilly, a butcher, and Padraic O'Connor, former managing director of NCB Stockbrokers.

Mr O'Neill asked Mr Ahern, one name at a time, if each of the men were his close friends.

Mr Ahern said they were. Some of the friendships dated back to the 1960s and 1970s, but, he said, he only became friendly with Mr O'Connor in the early 1990s, and he did not meet Mr English until 1994.