TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern's friend and personal solicitor, the late Gerard Brennan, acted for Celia Larkin when she purchased a house in Dublin using funds from Fianna Fáil, according to documents in the Registry of Deeds, writes Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent
Mr Ahern has told the Mahon tribunal that £30,000 given to Ms Larkin in 1993 came from funds controlled by a party trust of which Mr Brennan was a member, and that the money was given as a loan.
The documents in the Registry of Deeds show Mr Brennan acted as witness on behalf of Ms Larkin to the execution of the sale on April 22nd, 1993.
The deed is also signed by Ms Larkin and by Regina Brennan, secretary, at 27 Upper Mount Street, Dublin, the address of Mr Brennan's solicitor's practice.
There is nothing in the registry to indicate any charge on the property is held by the Fianna Fáil trust.
The tribunal has been told the £30,000, which came from an account with the name "B/T", held monies for the St Luke's building trust, which is associated with Mr Ahern's O'Donovan Rossa cumann in Drumcondra.
Ms Larkin, who was at the time Mr Ahern's partner, bought the house with the money and a further £10,000 from some elderly relatives who were long-time tenants in the house prior to it being put up for sale. One of the elderly relatives still lives in the Dublin house, which is owned by Ms Larkin.
Mr Ahern has told the tribunal that he did not know of the decision to give Ms Larkin the money until after the purchase of the house. He said the decision to give the money as a loan to Ms Larkin, to assist her help her elderly relatives, was agreed by all the trustees. The trustees were Mr Brennan, Joe Burke, Tim Collins, the late Jimmy Keane and the late Paddy Reilly. The sole signatory on the B/T account was Mr Collins.
In 1993, Mr Brennan was acting for Mr Ahern in his protracted separation proceedings. When those proceedings concluded in November 1993, the tribunal has been told, Mr Brennan was instrumental in organising a collection to assist Mr Ahern defray legal costs and other commitments arising from the separation agreement.
The collection raised £22,500. The total that had to be paid by Mr Ahern arising from legal bills and commitments he had to meet was £19,115. Of this, £12,813 were Mr Ahern's own legal costs. The figures would have been known to Mr Brennan.
The tribunal has been told the money given to Ms Larkin was a loan. Ms Larkin repaid the money after the tribunal inquired about transactions on the B/T account late last year. She paid back the £30,000, plus interest at the rate the money would have received if it had been left in the B/T account over the intervening period.
In October 2006, Mr Ahern repaid the money collected by Mr Brennan, the tribunal has been told.
Mr Brennan acted for Manchester-based businessman Michael Wall when he bought a house in Drumcondra in 1995, which he at first rented, and then sold to Mr Ahern.
Ms Larkin helped Mr Wall select the house.