No lodgement to accounts matched any salary cheque

BANK ACCOUNTS:COUNSEL FOR the tribunal has said they have not been able to find any lodgement to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern's accounts that matched any salary cheque.

Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said none of Mr Ahern's salary cheques can be shown to have been lodged to any one of the accounts that were opened from 1993 until 1995.

Mr Ahern had been asked to account for a series of lodgements to his accounts in the Irish Permanent Building Society and in Allied Irish Bank.

Mr O'Neill said there was no documentation of any sort to back up the source of round sum lodgements.

He also highlighted a £20,000 lodgement to Mr Ahern's AIB account in December 1995. This was initially explained as money withdrawn as part of £50,000 and then re-lodged.

However, when the tribunal ascertained the lodgement was sterling, it was explained as money withdrawn, converted and then re-lodged.

Mr O'Neill said a similar explanation had been given for a lodgement to the B/T account, opened in Irish Permanent Building Society by St Luke's trustee Tim Collins. Mr Ahern said he had nothing to do with the B/T account.

"I am merely drawing your attention to the fact that there would appear to be a coincidence in explanation as to the re- lodgement of funds to two accounts in regards to the funds," Mr O'Neill said.

He also pointed out a series of conflicts between Mr Ahern's current evidence and that which he gave previously.

He quoted Mr Ahern as saying that, apart from the stg£8,000 he was given in Manchester, he kept "no big amounts, but small amounts of sterling all the time".

He said Mr Ahern had made no reference to the stg£15,500 he now said he kept in his safe.

Mr Ahern said that at the time he had been talking about the float he used when he was travelling.

Mr Ahern also said he would not consider £4,000 or £5,000 significant.

Mr O'Neill said Mr Ahern had also been unable to explain how he exchanged stg£30,000 in 1995. He had not been able to say where the transaction took place, but had said he must have given it to someone to change for him.

Mr O'Neill asked why Mr Ahern had not mentioned that Manchester businessman Tim Kilroe had exchanged money for him in the past.

"We were talking about a different issue," Mr Ahern said. "If it had been Mr Kilroe it would have been me changing it with him and I would have remembered that."

Mr O'Neill examined Mr Ahern's television interview with Brian Dobson in September 2006.

He said Mr Ahern told Mr Dobson that when his friends helped him out, the money he had was gone, when he in fact had £50,000 savings.

"The money had gone - into your account where it was earning interest," Mr O'Neill said.

Mr Ahern said he made it clear to Mr Dobson that he was not impoverished, but taking into account his financial commitments, he did not actually have a lot of money.