Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted that he is co-operating "totally" with the Mahon tribunal despite his legal move to limit aspects of the tribunal's inquiries into his financial affairs, write Colm Keenaand Harry McGee.
Mr Ahern was granted permission in the High Court yesterday to take judicial review proceedings against the tribunal on three separate grounds. These include a claim by the Taoiseach that the tribunal has no right to question him about statements he made in the Dáil. A date for a full hearing of the issues concerned has not yet been set.
Mr Ahern, who is due to resume giving evidence to the tribunal on Thursday of next week, said his High Court move concerned "technical legal issues" and he was still going to "totally co-operate" with the tribunal. The tribunal was not represented and is expected to give its first response when the matter comes up for mention on Thursday.
It emerged during yesterday's hearing that the tribunal has issued an order to Mr Ahern to produce 150 documents relating to work conducted for him by his banking expert, Paddy Stronge, formerly of Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking. The order was for the production of the documents by 4.30pm yesterday.
Mr Justice Bryan McMahon granted a stay on the order and gave leave to Mr Ahern to challenge the tribunal's right to the documents, which Mr Ahern is claiming are privileged.
Mr Stronge has been engaged by Mr Ahern to examine banking material and evidence relating to his affairs, including suggestions by the tribunal that two lodgements made in 1994 may have been sterling and dollar lodgements respectively. Mr Ahern rejects the contentions.
Mr Ahern's solicitor Liam Guidera, in an affidavit, said that given the timing of the legal privilege issue, it seemed efficient and sensible for the Taoiseach also to seek to have the court rule on a constitutional issue concerning his client and the tribunal. He said Mr Ahern asserted that under provisions of the Constitution, he could not be questioned by the tribunal about comments he made in the Dáil concerning his personal finances.
The comments were made in the Dáil in 2006 in the wake of a report in The Irish Times concerning Mr Ahern's personal finances, the court was told.
The third issue concerns his view that he is entitled to certain material and information held by the tribunal and linked to contentions by the tribunal that two lodgements by Mr Ahern in 1994 were, respectively, sterling and dollar lodgements.
Mr Ahern rejects these suggestions and has been supported in his position by Mr Stronge.
Mr Guidera, who represents Mr Ahern at the tribunal, said the tribunal, in an opening statement, "suggested that the history provided [ by Mr Ahern] for a number of the relevant transactions was not borne out by information obtained from his bank, AIB. He vehemently denies this construction of events.
"However the construction of events carried the inference that he had not been candid" with the tribunal. This was a matter of grave concern to Mr Ahern, he said.
Mr Guidera also said: "My client's reputation is under attack by counsel [ for the tribunal]. Counsel [ for the tribunal] have formulated, presented and advocated various hypotheses that contradict his [ Mr Ahern's] account of his finances. Counsel has gone so far as to accuse associates [ of Mr Ahern] that their descriptions of providing loans [ to Mr Ahern] are untrue."
After the hearing yesterday Mr Ahern said the case concerned "a few technical legal issues where my legal team advised that I had absolutely no alternative".
As well as the matter of Dáil privilege, the other two issues were "related to professional advice that my legal team got independently and the tribunal is seeking that advice and the legal team is saying that that is not proper procedure.
"The third point is where the tribunal has independent legal financial advice and they won't give it to my people and my [ representatives] are challenging that."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny criticised Mr Ahern's stance, saying: "What has he said in the Dáil that he cannot now stand over and defend at the Mahon tribunal?"