B/T account meant Bertie and Tim Collins, bank staff believed

STAFF AT the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra in 1989 believed that the “B/T” in the B/T account stood for Bertie/Tim, a bank official told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.

And another official said she heard Tim Collins, a trustee of St Luke’s and the signatory of the account, referring to it as the Bertie and Tim account.

Mr Ahern had told the tribunal he had nothing to do with the account, opened in June 1989, and that B/T stood for building trust, and was operated by St Luke’s House committee for the upkeep of that building.

Former building society employee Elizabeth Smyth told counsel for the tribunal Henry Murphy SC that Mr Collins was a gregarious person whom she would see in the locality and in nearby Kennedy’s Pub with Mr Ahern.

She said it was “common knowledge” in the branch that the B/T account was Bertie and Tim and she never heard the term building trust.

“The reason I remembered it . . . was that Bertie Ahern was a minister at the time.

“I was quite young at the time and so it was quite impressive to be working on a minister’s account,” she said.

“What was the basis for you saying Mr Ahern was involved in the account with Mr Collins?” Mr Murphy asked.

“You couldn’t keep doing withdrawals or lodgements on an account and not know who or what the set up of the account was . . . it belonged to Bertie and Tim and that’s what B/T stood for.”

Lisa Jordan, who still works for Irish Permanent, said the passbook for the account was held in safekeeping by the bank and Mr Collins would request it.

On one occasion he came into the bank and someone else was serving him, Ms Jordan said. They went to the safe-keeping area to find the passbook but didn’t know where to look.

“He had said it’s the Bertie/Tim account,” Ms Jordan said. “I understood he was just making a joke about the account.”

Counsel for the tribunal Henry Murphy SC asked if she had ever heard the account referred to as the building trust account. Ms Jordan said she could not recall.