Ahern denies getting £50,000 from Wall

BERTIE AHERN has denied he ever received £50,000 from or gave £50,000 to Manchester-based businessman Micheál Wall.

He said there was no doubt in his mind that it was Mr Wall who bought the house where he now lives in Drumcondra.

Mr Wall purchased 44 Beresford Avenue, off Griffith Avenue in Drumcondra, in the summer of 1995 for £138,000. He had told the tribunal he wanted to use the house as a base for a coach business he intended to set up in Dublin.

At the time, Mr Ahern was looking for a house to rent in Drumcondra and made an arrangement to rent Beresford from Mr Wall. Mr Wall would stay in the house when he visited Dublin.

Celia Larkin, Mr Ahern's former partner, found the house for Mr Wall and also administered funds used to decorate it. Mr Wall gave Mr Ahern £30,000 sterling in a briefcase on Saturday, December 3rd, 1994, six months before the house was purchased.

Mr Ahern told counsel for the tribunal, Henry Murphy SC, that he was not surprised Mr Wall was going to make a contribution toward the work required on the house, but he was surprised by the size of the contribution. He said he interpreted the money from Mr Wall as a gesture of goodwill.

"He was showing he was really interested in this, he was going to do a good job of it, that's how I interpreted it," he said.

He told Mr Wall: "If you are putting that up, I will also put up money towards it."

He gave Ms Larkin £50,000 to put towards the house fit-up.

He said the late Gerry Brennan, his solicitor, advised that the money be put into two separate accounts.

On the following Monday, Ms Larkin went to the bank and opened two accounts in her own name into which she deposited the two separate sums.

However, in January, Ms Larkin withdrew the money again and gave it to Mr Ahern. Mr Ahern said the money was withdrawn because he wanted to make it available to Ms Larkin, and he was no longer going to be taoiseach, so he was no longer sure he would rent the house. "Is there any possibility, Mr Ahern, that in fact that £50,000 . . . actually found its way to Mr Wall?" Mr Murphy asked. "No, not any of the £50,000," Mr Ahern said.

Mr Ahern finally bought the house from Mr Wall in November 1997 for £180,000. Mr Murphy asked Mr Ahern why he told Ken Whelan and Eugene Masterson, authors of a book on Mr Ahern, that he paid £139,000 for his house.

"I was asked a figure when I did a long interview for that book, and I just gave that figure, no other significance to it," Mr Ahern replied.

Mr Wall cleared his mortgage with the proceeds from the sale and lodged the remaining funds, £89,865, to his Bank of Ireland account in Eyre Square, Galway.

Shortly afterwards, the tribunal heard, Mr Wall made a cash withdrawal of £50,000. He told the tribunal the money was for a crusher, which he subsequently did not buy.

"Is there any question that that £50,000 came to you, Mr Ahern?" Mr Murphy asked.

"No, there is not," Mr Ahern replied.

Mr Murphy also asked him whether there was any doubt in his mind that it was Mr Wall who bought Beresford in 1995.

"There is no doubt about that," Mr Ahern said.

He said there were several legal companies involved in it and several eminent people, some of whom were now "honourable members of the bench".