Taoiseach denies not being candid with inquiry

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern vehemently denies the construction of events put by the Mahon tribunal on certain banking transactions in 1993 and 1994 which suggested that Mr Ahern had not been candid with the tribunal, his solicitor said.

Mr Ahern had endeavoured to assist the tribunal and co-operate with its inquiries and had directed the full disclosure of all banking documents to it, his solicitor, Liam Guidera, said in an affidavit.

Referring to the context of the tribunal inquiries in its Quarryvale Two module, Mr Guidera said Mr Ahern fully denied a claim by Tom Gilmartin that he was told by Owen O'Callaghan that Mr O'Callaghan had made two payments to Mr Ahern.

Mr Guidera said that it was claimed the payments were for improper purposes and amounted to £30,000 and £50,000 respectively and it seemed to be alleged that the payments were made in 1989 and 1992 or 1993 respectively.

Mr Ahern was aware of no basis whatsoever for this allegation other than the hearsay suggestion from Mr Gilmartin and had drawn the tribunal's attention on numerous occasions to other false allegations made about him by Mr Gilmartin and others.

Mr Guidera said a supplementary opening statement by the tribunal of May 28th, 2007, in its Quarryvale Two hearings came as a great surprise to Mr Ahern and his lawyers as it had concerned itself solely with specific aspects of Mr Ahern's financial affairs.

It was clear the tribunal had decided to investigate a series of specific bank transactions disclosed by Mr Ahern.

It was suggested in this supplementary statement that the history provided by Mr Ahern for a number of the relevant transactions was not borne out by information supplied by AIB, Mr Guidera said.

Mr Ahern vehemently denied that construction of events, which carried the inference that Mr Ahern was not candid with the tribunal. This was of grave concern to Mr Ahern and his lawyers.

However, it was clear a stage was reached by July last where the tribunal had decided that aspects of Mr Ahern's finances were the proper subject of a self-contained or free-standing inquiry.

In September 2007, Mr Ahern explained to the tribunal that he had retained his own banking expert, Paddy Stronge.

Mr Guidera said that Mr Stronge was retained by him on behalf of Mr Ahern, to enable Mr Ahern's lawyers provide advice on the finance/currency aspects of the tribunal's inquiries; to prepare for the inquiries and for apprehended litigation arising from them.

A report from Mr Stronge was given on a "without prejudice" basis to the tribunal in October 2007.

The tribunal was now seeking all communication with Mr Stronge and all documents related to the retaining of Mr Stronge, Mr Guidera said. These were legally privileged documents.

Mr Ahern had sworn an affidavit of discovery of 150 documents on December 11th last and contended most of these were privileged.

There was no objection to the court reading those documents if it was considered necessary to decide the claim of privilege.

Mr Guidera said the tribunal had been told earlier this month that Mr Ahern intended to seek judicial review of its order requiring Mr Ahern to produce advice given by Mr Stronge and it had been asked to defer the order to February 18th.

The tribunal had refused and therefore the judicial review proceedings had to be prepared with urgency.

He said the tribunal had circulated some 25,000 documents to Mr Ahern in relation to its current module and the material exhibited by his side in the case could not represent all the material in existence.

Mr Guidera added that the tribunal had in October 2006 purported to question Mr Ahern about statements in the Dáil concerning the payments to his accounts.

Mr Guidera said he had asserted those statements were privileged.

The tribunal had written in December 2006 that it was not conducting any "interrogation" of Mr Ahern about his Dáil statements or engaging in any unconstitutional activity.

It said it had drawn Mr Ahern's attention to matters that it believed were factually erroneous in the context of public statements made by him in the Dáil or elsewhere.

Mr Guidera said that this response appeared to mischaracterise his side's inquiries but that the matter appeared to rest there, with no further reference to utterances by the Taoiseach to the Dáil.

He said Mr Ahern was due to give evidence to the tribunal on December 20th, 2007, but on December 17th, 2007, the tribunal forwarded him further material, including extracts from the Dáil records.

Mr Guidera said this came as a surprise and he had repeated the claim of privilege over the statements.

The tribunal had responded to him that same day, disputing the claim of privilege and expressing an intention to make Mr Ahern amenable in relation to his Dáil statements.