BERTIE AHERN'S brother, Noel Ahern, defended the Taoiseach yesterday against criticisms made following the appearance of his former constituency secretary, Gráinne Carruth, at the Mahon tribunal.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Noel Ahern, Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, again criticised the tribunal for its treatment of Ms Carruth.
"I thought it was fairly shabby in a way. I felt very much for Gráinne Carruth. If you go along as a witness in a tribunal you are not the accused in a murder trial. I don't think you deserve to be harangued or bullied or intimidated."
He said that his brother faced a big challenge trying to identify details for the tribunal: "I know that Bertie - because he's told me so - has spent many the Saturday night over the past couple of years trying to reconcile different lodgements and trying to work out the cheques in that lodgement.
"If he got it wrong on one occasion, so what? It probably crossed the lodgement - I am sure there is a simple explanation for it."
Noel Ahern said that £15,500 was a relatively small amount of money: "Well, it's not enormous money. I don't think it's enormous. This notion that, God, it's sterling - there are thousands of people back and forth to England every day."
Asked to explain why Ms Carruth had changed her evidence, he said: "I am sure there is a fairly simple explanation for that. Lodging three or four thousand pounds, I'm not sure if it was in cash or a cheque . . . the job I was in years ago, I lodged hundreds of thousands of pounds."
He continued: "That was probably part of her routine. She was probably going to the building society or bank every couple of weeks. It didn't seem like any big event in her life."
He said there was no reason for his brother to retire early.
"I don't see why he should. He was re-elected Taoiseach last May. You have to look at where all of this is coming . . . It's being turned into the Bertie Ahern module of the tribunal . . . It's supposed to be part of the Quarryvale module. We heard that he got £80,000 from Owen O'Callaghan. But that has been turned into a huge analysis of my brother's life."