Taoiseach told 'significant gaps' in information given to tribunal

Money trail:Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said yesterday that there were "significant gaps" in information provided to the inquiry by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in relation to a £50,000 bank transaction.

Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, outlined the information provided by Mr Ahern in relation to a £50,000 lodgement made to an account opened by his former partner, Celia Ahern, on December 5th, 1994.

Mr O'Neill said the tribunal was not aware that the £50,000 was withdrawn in cash by Ms Larkin and returned to Mr Ahern until Ms Larkin told them, in April 2006. The tribunal then wrote to Mr Ahern to establish what had happened to the cash, Mr O'Neill said.

In response, in early 2007, a report by accountant Des Peelo explained that "it became apparent to Mr Ahern around this time that it would be more convenient for the monies to be held in cash".

The cash remained in the safe in Mr Ahern's constituency office until it was spent, the report said.

Although it later emerged that Mr Ahern had used some of the money to purchase stg£30,000, he did not inform the tribunal of that fact at the time.

"The trail stops with the £50,000 cash," Mr O'Neill said.

Asked why he did not inform the tribunal then that he had made a stg£30,000 purchase, Mr Ahern said at the time he was getting on with his job and didn't really care "how it was going around the place".

Judge Mahon pointed out that there were "significant gaps" in the money trail that would make it impossible for the tribunal to follow. He said there was a lot of information between when the money was withdrawn and when it was spent.

"Were you not aware that by leaving out that information, it would effectively leave a hole in the trail?" he asked.

Mr Ahern said the account he gave was to the best of his recollection at the time. He said he recalled changing money into sterling but didn't have a record of it. Judge Mary Faherty intervened to ask Mr Ahern why, if he did have a recollection of the sterling purchase, he didn't see fit to put it in his reply as part of the narrative.

Mr Ahern said he endeavoured to find out if any of the amounts were sterling from the bank, but was not able to back it up.

He acknowledged that if he had given the information, it would have been helpful.

"The reason I didn't do that, Justice Faherty, was I didn't have the evidence to show that it was sterling," he said.

Mr O'Neill pointed out that in Mr Peelo's report there was also no reference to any involvement on Mr Ahern's part in receiving £28,772.90 from Michael Wall in his Drumcondra office.