HOUSE LOAN:FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern lent his ex-partner Celia Larkin €40,000 in February 2008 so that she could repay a loan given to her by the trustees of St Luke's in 1993, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.
Ms Larkin told the tribunal that she was anxious to settle the loan as quickly as she could once the matter became public.
The tribunal had heard that Ms Larkin was lent £30,000 by the St Luke's house committee. The money was used to enable Ms Larkin to buy out a house in which her elderly aunts were living.
At the time, they were facing eviction, the tribunal had been told.
The money came from the B/T account, which was intended to be used for the upkeep of St Luke's, the tribunal heard.
Ms Larkin said she had spoken at length to the late Gerry Brennan, Mr Ahern's solicitor, about her aunts' position.
"I was very concerned about them, this was a home they lived in from the time they were teens - my mum was there, too," she said.
Although she did discuss her aunts' plight with Mr Ahern, Ms Larkin said it did not dawn on her to ask him for a loan, and she was not aware that he had up to £50,000 in cash in a safe at the time. Neither did she ask the house committee for a loan, she said - Mr Brennan offered it to her in a phone call. "It was to the wire when the loan was given. I don't remember the date, but I remember being relieved."
Ms Larkin repaid the loan in February 2008, the tribunal heard. This was after the tribunal had begun to investigate the B/T account.
She said a reporter called to her aunt's house before Christmas. "My aunt was then worried that someone might try to take the home off her," Ms Larkin said.
She denied that her decision to repay had anything to do with the tribunal. She said she had long since lost her fear of publicity, but she wanted to protect her aunt. "She was agitated by people calling to the house, she was also agitated by people saying to her in the street . . ." she said.
Ms Larkin said she asked Mr Ahern to find out how much she should repay, to include interest due if the cash had remained in the bank. He advised her that the figure was €45,510 and she asked him for a short-term loan of €40,000 while she applied for a second mortgage on her home.
Ms Larkin signed a blank cheque and left it in to St Luke's with Mr Ahern's secretary, Sandra Cullagh. When Mr Ahern told her the exact sum she owed, Ms Larkin phoned Ms Cullagh, who wrote in the details on the cheque.
