Taoiseach's former secretary denies she carried out sterling transactions

GRÁINNE CARRUTH, former secretary to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, has denied she carried out sterling transactions on behalf of Mr Ahern, but accepts that previous evidence she gave to the tribunal was incorrect.

An occasionally tearful Ms Carruth, who worked at Mr Ahern's constituency office St Luke's from 1987 to 1999, was questioned about four lodgements to Mr Ahern's account in the Irish Permanent Building Society.

She was also asked about lodgements to the accounts of Mr Ahern's daughters. The lodgements totalled more than IR£15,500 and appeared to emanate from sterling conversions.

One lodgement of IR£4,119.59, was made on March 9th, 1994, after £4,000 stg was converted to Irish pounds, producing IR£4,119.59. Two lodgements of more than IR£1,028 each were also made to the accounts of Mr Ahern's daughters, Cecelia and Georgina. They appeared to emanate from £1,000 stg conversions, the tribunal was told.

Ms Carruth's name and address were on the lodgement slips for the transactions. Other lodgements made on May 9th and October 28th and which coincided with sterling transactions were also examined.

Ms Carruth initially denied that she had made any of the lodgements. However, after questioning from the three tribunal judges, she conceded she must have done, since her name was on the documents. However, when asked about the sterling conversions, she repeatedly said she had no recollection of ever dealing with sterling.

Commenting on the March 9th transactions, Judge Mary Faherty said that according to Ms Carruth's evidence, it appeared that somebody presented sterling to the bank, then Ms Carruth lodged Irish.

"They then step out, it would appear from the documentation, and you step in again," the judge said. She said the process would then be repeated.

"It seems completely illogical that that sequence of events could have happened on that day, Ms Carruth," the judge said.

"I accept that, thank you, judge," Ms Carruth responded.

Judge Alan Mahon said it was unlikely that Ms Carruth would have lodged two exact sums of IR£1,028 on March 9th to Mr Ahern's daughters' accounts.

"It seems a strange amount, Judge," Ms Carruth said.

Judge Gerald Keyes said all they wanted was the truth.

Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said that it would follow that someone gave Ms Carruth £6,000 stg on March 9th and told her to lodge it to the three accounts.

"That's the only logical sequence that can happen, isn't that right?" Mr O'Neill asked.

"I have no recollection of sterling ever being in my hands," Ms Carruth insisted. She accepted that evidence she had given to the tribunal on a previous occasion was incorrect. She had stated the only transactions she carried out for Mr Ahern were to change his salary cheques for him and lodge money to his daughters' accounts.

Mr O'Neill said Ms Carruth responds "no" to every question until such time that "incontrovertible" evidence was put to her, and then she said she couldn't recollect. He said that at the time, she was earning IR£66 a week and could not possibly forget dealing with large amounts of cash.

He asked Ms Carruth if she was surprised when documents came out to her from the tribunal showing she had made large cash lodgements to Mr Ahern's account.

"I shook for two hours," Ms Carruth said. She acknowledged that anything she was asked to do in banking terms "was for Bertie".