Sale of house to Ahern cost Wall £28,000, tribunal is told

The landlord:Businessman Michael Wall sustained a loss of £28,000 when he sold his house in Drumcondra to Bertie Ahern, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.

In his opening statement in the Quarryvale II module of the Mahon tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, counsel for the tribunal, said Mr Ahern had been living at 44 Beresford Avenue since 1995 and was paying £450 a month to Mr Wall until he purchased the house from him in 1997.

The original agreement with Mr Ahern was that he would live in the house and that Mr Wall would stay there when he visited Dublin on business from his home in Manchester.

The house was originally bought by Mr Wall for £138,000, but his total expenditure on it came to £208,000.

He sold it to Mr Ahern for £180,000.

Mr O'Neill said Mr Wall had indicated to the tribunal that the acquisition of the property was never intended to be an investment and that he was happy to sell the property to Mr Ahern at that price.

After he repaid his mortgage, Mr Wall had almost £90,000 left over which he lodged to his account in Galway.

"One month later the sum of £50,000 in cash was withdrawn by Mr Wall from that account," Mr O'Neill said.

"He [ Mr Wall] informed the tribunal the money was taken out in cash so that it might be used to purchase machinery at an auction. In the event he did not use it for that purpose."

Mr O'Neill said Mr Wall indicated that he brought the cash back to Manchester, kept it in his safe and spent it over time. No receipts or records of this expenditure were kept by him, he said.

Mr O'Neill outlined the difficulties the tribunal had in acquiring a copy of a will made by Mr Wall.

The will referred exclusively to the Beresford house and it bequeathed it to Mr Ahern, or to his daughters, if Mr Ahern predeceased Mr Wall.

The will was written on June 6th, 1996, and witnessed by Mr Wall's solicitor Gerry Brennan, who also acted for Mr Ahern in relation to the house.

Mr O'Neill said Mr Wall was asked to produce the will to the tribunal, but did not.

He was asked to attend a private meeting with the tribunal, but did not, until a summons was issued by the tribunal requiring his attendance at a public hearing.

"On being questioned as to why he had not discovered this will to the tribunal, Mr Wall indicated that he was unaware that he had made such a will," Mr O'Neill said.

"He later indicated that he would have wanted Mr Ahern to have the property in the event of his death because of Mr Ahern's input into it. He says he had not discussed it with Mr Ahern."