Fianna Fail was the beneficiary of funds brought into the State under the controversial passports-for-sale scheme, The Irish Times has learned.
A sum of money, believed to be about £10,000, was diverted from the ICC Bank account of a passport investor to a Fianna Fail account in another financial institution in 1993, while Mr Bertie Ahern was party treasurer. The Fianna Fail account was held in the names of party figures.
An allegation that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, had knowledge of this transaction was made known to the Flood tribunal some weeks ago by the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ray Burke. He maintained that Mr Ahern had access to, and control of, monies relating to an account in the ICC.
The claim that Mr Ahern, or anyone on his behalf, had access to such monies in an ICC account was firmly denied by a senior Government source last Friday. Claiming to be aware of the existence of such an allegation for some time, the source said that Mr Ahern had never had an account of his own in the ICC, and neither had Fianna Fail - something confirmed by other sources. The Government source also denied that Mr Ahern was the beneficiary of any transaction in the ICC relating to passports.
The same Government source told The Irish Times this week that "a small sum of money" had been diverted from a passport account in the ICC to Fianna Fail.
The Irish Times has also learned that, in recent informal discussions with the Flood tribunal, Mr Burke offered to tell all that he knew on condition that he be granted immunity. Limited immunity has been granted to Mr James Gogarty and is being sought by the former Dublin assistant city and county manager, Mr George Redmond.
Mr Burke was given an indication informally that an immunity would be forthcoming on the basis of his full co-operation with the tribunal.
Based on this, Mr Burke gave the tribunal a general outline of his further evidence, in which he implicated the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
In the past few days, however, Mr Burke's willingness to tell all has been prejudiced by the withdrawal of the informal promise of immunity.
In the debate on the Gilmartin allegations in the Dail last month Mr Ahern said that he became treasurer of Fianna Fail on January 28th, 1993, but had started work "in that area" in 1992.
In the case of the funds sent from the ICC to Fianna Fail, it is understood that the passport investor initially put a substantial deposit into the bank. This would have been a normal procedure, as the passport scheme involved investors putting money into Irish businesses in return for receiving a passport, and often the funds went first into a financial institution while an appropriate business in which to invest was located.
It is understood that the passport investor involved put substantial funds into two to three businesses and had obtained his passport before the ICC was instructed during 1993 to forward funds amounting to about £10,000 to the Fianna Fail account. The bank would make no comment, saying that it could never divulge details of customer transactions.
ICC Bank is a bank often used for significant business deposits, although it is understood to have been only one of a number of banks used by investors in the passports scheme. The ICC is a Government-owned bank which is shortly to be put up for sale.