Lack of detail in paper trail of loan conceded

Cheques/drafts:Bertie Ahern accepts there is nothing in the paper trail of documents underlying the goodwill loan he says he got from friends in December 1993 to identify him as the recipient of the money, or to indicate the payments made were personal donations.

The two non-cash elements of the £22,500 goodwill loan had their roots in companies owned by Des Richardson, a friend of Mr Ahern, and who was Fianna Fáil's national treasurer at the time, the tribunal heard yesterday.

Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, detailed the series of bank documents underlying the cheque and draft payments to Mr Ahern.

The money for the first came from a bogus invoice used by Euroworkforce, a company associated with Mr Richardson, to make a claim for £5,000 plus VAT against NCB Stockbrokers dated December 14th, 1993.

Euroworkforce factored this invoice through Bank of Ireland Commercial Finance the following day, and a sum of £5,000 was debited to the account of Roevin Ltd, another of Mr Richardson's companies, on December 22nd.

This company purchased a bank draft for £5,000 in favour of Mr Richardson the same day, which was passed on to Mr Ahern who said that the only document he was aware of in this sequence was the last one, the bank draft.

Mr O'Neill said the £5,000 draft was said to represent a personal payment to Mr Ahern by Pádraic O'Connor of NCB Stockbrokers, forming part of the goodwill loan of £22,500 given to Mr Ahern on December 27th.

Had the Taoiseach any explanation why the draft came in the form it did, he asked.

"All I know is I got that draft on the basis that it was a personal donation to me from Pádraic O'Connor," Mr Ahern replied. "Until that was disputed back in 2006, that's what it was."

Mr Ahern said the reason the money had gone through that process was so it would not be clear who originated it, or how the process was originated. It went through a fairly convoluted process to make sure that it was not known where it came from.

He agreed with counsel that Mr O'Connor's involvement was totally concealed, as was the fact that the money was intended as a personal donation and his own role as recipient.

Some £15,000 of the goodwill loan given by friends to Mr Ahern was in cash so there is no paper trail, Mr O'Neill explained, before detailing the trail relating to the remaining £2,500.

This was given personally to Mr Ahern by Mr Richardson and had its origins in an invoice raised by Willdover Ltd, another of Mr Richardson's companies.

This invoice, dated December 15th, 1993, and signed by Mr Richardson, was addressed to Seán Fleming of Fianna Fáil for £18,744 and related to fees due to Deborah Burke and Mr Richardson.

On December 22th, a cheque for this amount was written, signed by Mr Ahern and others on behalf of the Reynolds/Ahern fundraising account, and paid to Willdover.

Mr Ahern said he would not have seen any cheques, as these were dealt with by party headquarters.

On December 22nd, Mr Richardson wrote a cheque for £2,500 to cash, which was given to Mr Ahern.

Mr Ahern said this was the only document from this transaction that he was familiar with. It represented a personal contribution from Mr Richardson to assist with his legal fees at the time.

Asked why the payment had been made through a company cheque, Mr Ahern said this was Mr Richardson's account, it was money he had earned and he was entitled to make payments from it in whatever manner he wanted.

Mr O'Neill said there was nothing on the face of the cheque to indicate it was a personal donation, that Mr Ahern was the intended recipient, or that it was connected to the goodwill loan.

Mr Ahern agreed nothing was written on the cheque but said people did not normally write details on cheques.

Business people such as Mr Richardson frequently used company accounts and cheques to make payments, he said. He did not see anything wrong with the way this payment was made.

Mr O'Neill suggested this was a relatively unusual method for giving effect to a personal donation, but the witness said he did not agree. Business people normally invoiced their service providers in this way.