The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is to give his long-awaited evidence concerning his personal finances to the Mahon tribunal in Dublin Castle today.
The scene was set for probing questioning of Mr Ahern after a tough day of interrogation yesterday of his former partner Celia Larkin. She was challenged by the tribunal that she had given three different versions of her handling of cash transactions on behalf of Mr Ahern.
The Taoiseach is scheduled to give evidence both today and tomorrow as part of the tribunal's series of public hearings into four bank lodgements totalling more than £84,000 made in 1994 and 1995.
All of the lodgements to AIB O'Connell Street, Dublin, were preceded by foreign exchange transactions.
Bank officials at AIB gave evidence over seven days in July and already this week Mr Ahern's former landlord, Michael Wall, and his former partner, Ms Larkin, have given evidence.
Yesterday Ms Larkin was questioned at length by tribunal counsel Henry Murphy SC about what he categorised as three different versions she had given of what he said should be a simple matter.
Mr Murphy queried Ms Larkin about the lodgement of £28,772.90 to an account she opened with AIB O'Connell Street, in her own name, in December 1994. The money had come from Mr Wall, who is based in Manchester, and who at the time was in the process of buying a house in Dublin which Mr Ahern was to rent.
Ms Larkin, he said, had told the tribunal by way of a memo last year that the odd figure of the lodgement was because it was the result of sterling being exchanged into Irish pounds.
Yesterday Ms Larkin said she had clarified and corrected her original recollection and could now state that she had brought the money to the bank in a briefcase but had not looked inside the briefcase.
She could not say how much sterling cash had been in the briefcase, or whether there had been sterling and Irish pounds.
She told the tribunal she understood the money was "bundles" of sterling cash she had witnessed Mr Wall giving to Mr Ahern in St Luke's, Drumcondra, on Saturday, December 3rd, 1994. Earlier this week Mr Wall said this money included some Irish pounds but was mostly sterling.
Ms Larkin said Mr Ahern asked her to bring the money to the bank and she collected the briefcase from St Luke's before being driven to the bank by Mr Ahern's driver on Monday, December 5th.
At the time Mr Ahern was minister for finance. He was expecting to form a government with the Labour Party on Tuesday, December 6th, and to be appointed taoiseach. In the event the Labour Party pulled back and formed a government with Fine Gael and Democratic Left instead.
As well as the December 1994 lodgement, Ms Larkin also told the tribunal about collecting a "bag or parcel" containing £50,000 in cash from AIB O'Connell Street six weeks later, on January 19th, 1995. She said Mr Ahern had asked her to withdraw the cash, which was his but was in an account in her name. Mr Ahern, who was by then leader of the opposition, had waited outside in a car while she collected the parcel of cash. Mr Ahern then drove her and the money back to St Luke's, she said.
This money was also to be used on the house Mr Wall was purchasing. During her evidence yesterday Ms Larkin said: "Bertie dealt in cash. I think he felt more comfortable with it."
The tribunal has discovered that less than £2,000 worth of sterling was taken in by AIB O'Connell Street on the day Ms Larkin made the £28,772 deposit.
It has also discovered that the amount lodged equates to $45,000 exactly when one of the dollar exchange rates in use on the day is applied.
Yesterday Mr Murphy asked if Mr Wall had given sterling cash to Mr Ahern on Saturday, December 3rd, 1994, and if she had brought that money to the bank on the following Monday.
Ms Larkin said she saw sterling cash on a desk in St Luke's on the Saturday. "I collected the case from St Luke's on the Monday morning and I brought the money to the bank." She said she never had an involvement with a substantial amount of dollars.
