Celia Larkin relied on the recollection of Bertie Ahern for her account of being driven to AIB on O'Connell Street in Dublin in January 1995 by Ahern, withdrawing IR£50,000, coming out of the bank and being driven back to Drumcondra by Bertie, where he lodged the money in his safe at St Luke's. Although, according to Celia, this memory was prompted by Bertie's recollection of what occurred, Bertie had no recollection at all of this at the tribunal, writes Vincent Browne.
On December 5th, 1994, Michael Wall brought stg£30,000 (or thereabouts, depending on what version one accepts) in cash into Bertie's constituency office at St Luke's. Bertie lodged the cash in his safe. The following Monday, Celia Larkin lodged the stg£30,000 (approximately) cash in a new account opened in her name. She also lodged IR£50,000 of Bertie Ahern's money, which he had accumulated in his safe, in another account in her own name on the same day. Then, as recounted above, Bertie's IR£50,000 was withdrawn in cash some weeks later, apparently to facilitate expenditure on a new home he and Celia were establishing but were not to get possession of for almost six months - this was the house in Beresford Avenue, Drumcondra, which Michael Wall was apparently in the process of purchasing and which Bertie was proposing to rent .
Some time later Bertie Ahern had second thoughts about renting this house and decided to "pay back" Michael Wall's stg£30,000 (approximately) and to do this, instead of Celia Larkin withdrawing the stg£30,000 which she had placed in an account opened specifically to receive that cash, Bertie purchased stg£30,000 with some of the IR£50,000 he had withdrawn from the bank some time previously.
There is no record of this purchase of stg£30,000, Bertie has no recollection of how or where he purchased this huge amount of money. He thinks it might have been purchased on his behalf by an associate, he agrees there would have been only a few associates at the time he would have asked to do this for him but cannot identify anybody. Neither, obviously, has anybody volunteered the information that he/she was the person who purchased this money for Bertie with Bertie's own cash.
He agreed he would have had to notify the bank in advance of his intention to purchase such a large amount of sterling but, again, had no recollection of doing so and neither has anybody in his bank any recollection of it. Neither is there any record in the bank of a purchase of anything like that amount at that time (the significance of all this is that if Bertie did not purchase the stg£30,000, where did this amount of sterling which subsequently emerged come from?). He offered no explanation for why he didn't simply get a sterling bank draft for the amount and give it to Michael Wall. He said: "I didn't do a draft."
He said he might have bought the stg£30,000 in dribs and drabs but could not offer any reason why he would have done it that way nor had he any recollection of doing so or getting anybody to do it on his behalf.
He then changed his mind again and decided to proceed with the Beresford house, so there was no need to give Michael Wall back his stg£30,000 (around this time Michael Wall had an accident in Manchester and was hospitalised) but instead of putting the money back in the bank and earning interest on it, Bertie kept the stg£30,000 in his safe, along with the IR£20,000 (approximately), making up the IR£50,000 he had withdrawn from Celia Larkin's account in January 1995.
Then on June 15th, 1995, he needed to make payments for furnishings to the house of IR£11,743. Instead of taking that money out of the Irish cash he had in his safe, he took out £10,000 sterling and £2,000 Irish and these cash amounts were lodged in an account of Celia Larkin. Asked why he didn't give the money to Celia Larkin in Irish punts he offered no explanation other than: "It's just that I had both, I just did it, I don't think there was any particular reason."
Then, later in 1995, there was a lodgement of IR£19,142.92, which corresponds with exactly stg£20,000 (given the then exchange rate). Bertie say this was the residue of the stg£30,000 he had purchased, of which there is no record.
In all we are taking here about stg£68,000 (that is in sterling alone, aside from the very large amounts of Irish currency that went through his hands at this time aside from his salary) which was a huge sum of money at the time, far in excess of the salary then being earned by Bertie Ahern, far in excess of ministerial salaries at the time.
The context of the inquiries into these transactions is the allegation that Bertie Ahern received £80,000 from Owen O'Callaghan and in examining the truth of this allegation the tribunal has come across a series of extraordinary and bewildering financial transactions on the part of Bertie Ahern, for which he has no credible explanation.
And by the way, this has nothing to do with his marital separation. All this occurred after the separation proceedings had been concluded.