MAHON TRIBUNAL:FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern paid more than €7,000 in back tax for unpaid rent when he lived at St Luke's, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday. However, he also told the tribunal he did pay rent to the trustees of St Luke's when he lived over his constituency office.
The tribunal had also seen lease agreements which said Mr Ahern was to pay £150 a month in rent.
Mr Ahern made a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue Commissioners in late 2006, through his accountant Des Peelo. The disclosure said Mr Ahern had lived at St Luke's intermittently from 1992 to 1995, but did not pay any rent.
"Mr Ahern also lived on an intermittent basis with a lady friend," the disclosure said.
"Mr Ahern did not make financial contributions during his circa intermittent two- to three-year stay at St Luke's."
Counsel for the tribunal Des O'Neill SC asked if the reference to rent was accurate. "That isn't the most glaring error that he has in that," Mr Ahern said.
Mr O'Neill said Mr Ahern had signed this statement and signed a follow-up statement, in January 2007, which estimated the tax he owed for being given accommodation free of charge was €7,331.
"You have in fact paid this sum to Revenue based on the fact you have not paid this amount in rent," Mr O'Neill said.
Mr Ahern said: "The view that Mr Peelo took was that we should pay these issues and argue the detail later."
Mr Ahern said he had also paid tax he thought might have been owed for the money he paid Micheál Wall while he rented his home at Beresford Road, Drumcondra, from him. He subsequently found out that Mr Wall had correctly paid that tax in England.
He said he believed he paid rent in St Luke's and expected he would also be refunded by the Revenue for that.
Mr O'Neill asked if it was possible that the two lease agreements were generated by Mr Ahern solely as evidence if someone asked about his status at St Luke's.
"If the suggestion is that a member of the Law Society would produce some kind of bogus documents, the answer to that certainly is no," Mr Ahern responded.
Counsel for Mr Ahern, Conor Maguire SC, accused Mr O'Neill of trying to trap and demean Mr Ahern and of "trying to reduce his evidence in every way possible".
Mr Ahern also came under pressure about evidence he gave in February in relation to his knowledge of a £30,000 loan to his former partner, Celia Larkin.
The money came from the B/T account, an account opened in 1989 by St Luke's trustee Tim Collins. Ms Larkin was given the loan to help purchase the house in which her aunts were living in 1993. It was repaid in February 2008, after the tribunal began to inquire about it.
In the tribunal in February, Mr Ahern was asked when the loan was repaid. He told the tribunal: "I asked one of the officers yesterday and they said in the period since Christmas."
However, when Ms Larkin took the stand earlier this week, she said she had contacted Mr Ahern directly about repaying the loan.
She had asked him to calculate the interest she owed on the sum and she also borrowed €40,000 from him to repay the loan while she waited for a new mortgage to come through.
Mr O'Neill asked how, given his intimate knowledge of the repayment, Mr Ahern could have responded that he asked one of the constituency officers for information about the repayment.
Mr Ahern said his role was giving a loan to Ms Larkin.
"I did not pay back the treasurers, Celia Larkin paid back the treasurers and paid that into my office," he said.
"You consider that an answer to the question?" Mr O'Neill asked.
"I do, Mr O'Neill," Mr Ahern said.