Businessman says Ahern did not react when given £28,000

When Manchester businesman Michael Wall handed about £28,000, mostly sterling, to Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach was neither surprised nor appreciative, Mr Wall told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.

The 65-year-old was giving evidence in relation to cash he "made available" to Mr Ahern at his office in Drumcondra on December 3rd, 1994, to make improvements on his house at Beresford, Drumcondra.

He said he had not discussed with Mr Ahern that he would be bringing the cash before he delivered it.

He described how he was let in to St Luke's, Mr Ahern's constituency office on Drumcondra Road, about noon on the Saturday.

He was brought into Mr Ahern's office and they talked about the house, on which Mr Wall had put a booking deposit.

"I was having a chat and Ms Larkin popped in and out a few times," Mr Wall said.

"I mentioned that I had taken some money and I would like to leave it, as it would be there as working cash, and that was it."

Mr Wall took the cash out of his black briefcase, mainly in notes of 20 but with some 50s, the tribunal was told, and put it on the table.

He then closed his briefcase, in which he had also carried his papers.

Mr Ahern gave "no particular reaction whatsoever".

"Were they surprised, were they agog, were they appreciative, or what?" Henry Murphy, counsel for the tribunal, asked.

"Normal," Mr Wall replied. "Normal is the best I can say."

"It's a huge sum of money to have in cash on a table on your Saturday afternoon at home," Mr Murphy said.

"It may be to some people . . . not to me, no," Mr Wall responded.

The cash was not counted by anyone, he told the tribunal, and Mr Ahern did not issue him with a receipt.

The meeting lasted for approximately half an hour and there was a discussion about where the money should be kept.

"He didn't count it, I didn't count it. I just said it's roughly there and he suggested that he'd put it in the bank," Mr Wall said.

Ms Larkin was called in and it was decided that she would take charge of looking after the cash, he said. Then Mr Ahern took it into the next room.

"I assumed he put it in a safe place," Mr Wall said.

In earlier evidence to the tribunal, Mr Wall had said that he thought the cash figure he had made available to Mr Ahern was £30,000 in sterling.

However, yesterday he told the tribunal it was about £28,000 and probably contained some punts. He could not be exact about the figure because he had spent some of it on hospitality, he said.

The cash was subsequently lodged to an account in the name of Ms Larkin and showed up on a statement of that account as £28,772.90.

It emerged that a copy of Ms Larkin's account statement was found among Mr Wall's papers after an order of discovery from the tribunal.

Mr Wall said he received it shortly after he was contacted by the tribunal.

"This was effectively your account, wasn't it, Mr Wall?" Mr Murphy asked him.

He replied "yes".

"You never saw an account statement?"

"I can't remember," he answered.

Asked whether he had discussed the tribunal with Mr Ahern or Ms Larkin before giving his statement, on February 26th, 2007, he replied that he had no discussion with Ms Larkin for a number of years.

"I thought you said at the beginning of your evidence that you were very close?" Mr Murphy asked.

"Yes, but I haven't discussed anything," Mr Wall answered.

He said he had not met her personally in two years.

"So, you're not meeting as often as you used to?"

"No, because she's no longer in the circle," he said. "But she's still a friend of mine."

Asked whether Mr Ahern had ever told him he had withdrawn sterling from the bank to repay the cash sum, Mr Wall said he didn't remember anything like that.

Mr Wall told his own counsel, James Connolly, that there was no question of the money, or any part of it, being a gift to Mr Ahern or of him receiving or expecting any favours from Mr Ahern.