The Taoiseach's former partner Celia Larkin was the Fianna Fáil staff member whose elderly relatives were helped to purchase a house with £30,000 withdrawn from a constituency account, the Mahon tribunal heard today.
The money was paid by cheque to solicitor Patrick O'Sullivan in March 1993, acting on behalf of three elderly people who were in a difficult legal situation.
Mr Ahern told the tribunal yesterday that the money was paid from the "BT" account with the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra. The account had been set up to administer expenses on the St Luke's office.
He said this was not something the trustees would normally do, but the issue was "creating a large emotional difficulty" for three very old people who were facing the prospect of having to go to court with a landlord.
He also told the tribunal the money had been paid back and the legal documentation was available to show this.
Mr Ahern told the tribunal today he did not have prior knowledge that the account's trustees planned to pay the money.
Des O'Neill, for the tribunal, put it to the Taoiseach that at the time of the transaction, Ms Larkin was Mr Ahern's "life partner". "That was the proximity of your relationship," Mr O'Neill said.
"I hope we're not getting into relationships again," Mr Ahern responded.
Lawyers for Ms Larkin today said she was a private individual and that this was her private life. It was "totally unnecessary" to go into her private life, they said.
Ms Larkin's representative said he wished to have a letter he submitted to the tribunal this morning to be read into evidence. He agreed to a suggestion by tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon that certain identifying information would first be blacked out.
The letter from Crowley Miller solicitors said the trustees of St Luke's had offered her a loan of £30,000 after she discussed the difficulty facing her relatives with "colleagues at work".
The property was purchased in Ms Larkin's name for a total sum of £40,100, and her three elderly relatives continued to live there as tenants.
The agreement with the trustees was that the loan would be repaid with interest either on the deaths of all three tenants or at the request of the trustees, the letter said.
Mr Ahern told the tribunal today the money had been paid back recently to Fianna Fáil's Dublin Central account but would ultimately be paid back to the BT account from where the £30,000 had come.
All monies now had to go through the constituency account first because this was the account returned to the Standards in Public Office Commission, and this was the law, he said.
He said that to the best of his recollection he had learned of the transaction after it had happened. He understood that the agreement reached with the trustees in respect of the £30,000 loan was done "by way of a minute or a note" so there would be a record of it.
The tribunal heard the late Gerry Brennan, who was one of the trustees of the St Luke's account from which the £30,000 was paid, may have acted as solicitor for Ms Larkin in the transaction.
Mr Ahern said that if it was the case that Mr Brennan was the solicitor in the transaction, "there could well be a legal document so I don't want to say there's not".
The letter sent by Ms Larkin's solicitor to the tribunal this morning said the property had nothing whatsoever to do with Mr Ahern. He had nothing to do with the transaction either directly or indirectly, and he had no involvement in agreeing the loan.
The matters referred to in the letter were "private, personal matters", Ms Larkin's solicitors Crowley Miller said.
They said the matters have nothing to do with the tribunal's terms of reference or with the Quarryvale II module in public hearing.
Ms Larkin's solicitors said they respectfully suggested the tribunal should take steps to protect their clients' right to privacy and that the matters should not be aired in public.
The surviving relative, an aunt aged 90, was recently upset when a reporter covering the tribunal called to the house and asked her questions about the property, the letter from Ms Larkin's solicitors to the tribunal said.
She was in ill health, and her health had since deteriorated, the letter added.