No record of Ahern buying stg£30,000

Bank records:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern could not have bought £30,000 sterling from AIB in the first half of 1995 because records show no sums of that size were sold, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.

John Garrett, AIB's nominated specialist in foreign transactions, conceded that if such a purchase had been made, it would have been reflected in the records.

In response to a query about sterling lodgments made to Mr Ahern's accounts on June 15th and December 1st, 1995, Mr Ahern has explained that he withdrew £50,000 in Irish pounds from his account in January 1995.

With that, he purchased £30,000 sterling to give to builder Michael Wall, he said. However, he did not give it to Mr Wall, Mr Ahern said, and it was later relodged to the bank.

Tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC pointed out that if that were the case, £30,000 sterling would have had to be sold by the bank some time between January 1995 and June 15th 1995, but, he said, AIB records between those dates did not record any such sale.

They showed daily average sterling transactions of £2,133.65. "If there were sales of £30,000 sterling to anybody, it would be a notable event?" Mr O'Neill asked.

Mr Garrett agreed.

Mr O'Neill said the bank had indicated it was not in a position to identify any sale of £30,000 sterling at the time in question.

"Records do not record there being any sale, on any one day to any customers of the bank, of £30,000 sterling," he said.

"If a person had gone to the bank and purchased £30,000 sterling would it be reflected in one of the pages of the bank documentation?" Mr O'Neill asked.

"I would expect it to be, yes," Mr Garrett replied.