The Taoiseach's former partner Celia Larkin has told the Mahon tribunal there is "no question" that money given to Mr Ahern in 1994 by a Manchester businessman was anything other than sterling.
Ms Larkin took the stand at the planning inquiry to be questioned about Mr Ahern's personal finances in the 1990s. The inquiry is focusing on the payment of approximately £30,000 by Mr Wall to Mr Ahern in 1994.
Celia Larkin arriving at the Mahon tribunal in Dublin Castle this morning.
Mr Ahern's lawyers have already said a significant lodgement made in 1994 was sterling cash, while tribunal lawyers used AIB bank records to claim the lodgement was, in fact, dollars.
Mr Wall, yesterday told the tribunal that he gave a briefcase filled with approximately £28,000 in cash to Mr Ahern in his constituency building, St Luke's, in Drumcondra, Dublin. Ms Larkin was also present, he said.
The cash was handed over a day after a constituency fundraising dinner on Friday, December 2nd.
She said that Mr Ahern was in the process of moving the cash from a table to a back room when she entered the meeting between the two men on December 3rd, 1994. The money was to renovate a house Mr Wall was buying and that Mr Ahern would rent off him.
Ms Larkin said her function was to administer the money correctly on behalf of Mr Wall. She said Mr Ahern was travelling to Brussels on Monday, December 5th, 1994 and he had asked her on the Sunday night to collect a briefcase containing the money from his office and to take it to the bank.
She told the tribunal she opened two accounts at AIB on December 5th. She referred to one of them as the "Bertie" account and the other as the "Michael Wall" account, which contained the money handed over by the businessman.
She said Mr Wall had not asked her to open the account in AIB but it was "his money" that had been handed over and "his money" that went into it.
In her evidence this morning, Ms Larkin said her recollection of dates was not good. Addressing Counsel for the tribunal Henry Murphy SC, she said: "I'm sorry, Henry, but I'm not very good on dates. I associate things with events rather than dates. It's a long time ago."
Mr Murphy took her through three accounts of the events she had given to the tribunal. He said he had "difficulty reconciling" the accounts she gave in her written statement to the tribunal, her interview and a subsequent letter to the tribunal from her solicitor.
In the first statement, she claims the lodgement was made in sterling and was handed over in St Luke's on Saturday, December 3rd, 1994. In the second, she says it is "speculation" that the £28,772 was sterling and that the tribunal would have to ask Mr Wall to clarify that himself.
She also says in the second account she thinks that she was in solicitor Gerry Brennan's office when the money was handed over. This was clarified in the letter and today, Ms Larkin again insisted it was handed over in St Luke's.
Ms Larkin told the tribunal this morning she had "clarified" her position on the lodgements to the bank "given I had time to reflect".
Ms Larkin said that in her interview with the tribunal "it was not explained to me the significance of the events around the dates".
"When the relevance of the dates was said to me then I could piece together the information." On the payment from Mr Wall to Mr Ahern she said: "On recollection, it was handed to Bertie and I was in the office at the time."
Celia Larkin
The following Monday morning was not the first time she saw the money but "it was the first time I got the money".
She had spoken with solicitor Gerry Brennan on the Saturday about the money handed over by Mr Wall and about how it was to be administered, she said. She believed the bulk of that discussion took place on the Saturday night.
"When you think about these things over a period of time you can piece them together," she said.
Asked why she said in an earlier account that it was "speculation" that the money was sterling, she replied today: "I have no doubt that it was sterling."
She has told the tribunal previously she lodged almost £29,000 that Mr Ahern had received from Mr Wall. The money was intended for refurbishment work on the Drumcondra home and was later partly spent on a new conservatory.
Mr Wall, yesterday told the tribunal that he gave a briefcase filled with approximately £28,000 in cash to Mr Ahern in his constituency building, St Luke's, in Drumcondra, Dublin. Ms Larkin was also present, he said.
The relationship between Mr Ahern and Ms Larkin ended in 2003.
Today, Ms Larkin told the tribunal how she organised the fundraising dinner for St Luke's on Friday, December 2nd, 1994 and how she and her then partner Mr Ahern met friends, including Mr Wall and his wife, for drinks on the Saturday night, the day after the dinner.
She added that she "of course" discussed the matter with Mr Ahern when she was contacted by the tribunal to give evidence. She said she had asked him: "Why I was being contacted? What was it all about?"
Ms Larkin said she had never discussed the matters surrounding the lodgements with Mr Wall, as she had "no contact" with him at that time.
Ms Larkin also told the tribunal this afternoon she did not have any dealing with dollars. Asked directly by Mr Murphy SC if she had ever had "any connection" with dollars. "And I'm not talking about holiday money now," he said.
Ms Larkin replied: "No."
Ms Larkin also said she did not have any "meeting" with Mr Ahern in relation to the matters put to her prior to her own original meeting with the tribunal.
Asked about her comments in a meeting with the tribunal that she had "of course" had discussions about the bank transactions with Mr Ahern, she said she had spoken to him about the "house file" on Beresford Avenue when he asked about it.