FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will take the stand at the Mahon tribunal today to face questions about his home in Drumcondra.
On what will be his 12th day at the tribunal, Mr Ahern is likely to be asked about his rental arrangement with Manchester-based businessman Micheál Wall.
Mr Wall bought 44 Beresford Avenue, off Griffith Avenue, Drumcondra, in 1995. He told the tribunal he wanted to use the house as a base for a coach business he intended to set up in Dublin.
He said that at the time Mr Ahern was looking for a house to rent in Drumcondra and they made an arrangement that Mr Ahern would rent Beresford with an option to buy, and Mr Wall would stay in the house when he visited Dublin. Celia Larkin, Mr Ahern’s former partner, found the house for Mr Wall and also administered funds used to decorate it.
Mr Wall paid £138,000 for Beresford and invested a considerable sum for improvement works, including almost £30,000 sterling given to Mr Ahern in a briefcase.
Mr Ahern bought Beresford from Mr Wall in July 1997 for £180,000, shortly after he became taoiseach.
Tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon SC yesterday examined in detail the handling of payments to lobbyist Frank Dunlop by Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan in relation to Quarryvale, now the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
Mr O’Callaghan’s company Riga Ltd, had a 40 per cent stake in Barkhill Ltd, the company behind the Quarryvale development. Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin had a 40 per cent stake in Barkhill and AIB held 20 per cent. The tribunal was told that expenses paid out by Riga in connection with Quarryvale were later refunded by Barkhill Ltd.
Ms Dillon questioned how its auditors had handled those expenses within their annual reports and why payments to Mr Dunlop totalling £80,000 made in 1992 were first attributed to the Quarryvale development, then attributed to a proposed stadium at Neilstown and finally reattributed to Quarryvale.
Clare Cowhig, partner with Barber Co, the company that audited Riga Ltd, said she carried out the transactions because she was instructed to do so.
Ms Cowhig said she moved the £80,000 back into the Barkhill expenses in 1994, also on the instructions of Mr Deane.
