Analysis:Evidence on a £5,000 gift made it clear it was not a unique occurrence, writes Colm Keena
At one stage yesterday, tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon intervened to explain to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern the difference between political donations given to a politician to help him or her fund their political activities, and gifts people might receive and use to fund holidays or put towards the purchase of a house.
The issue had become hopelessly muddled before the chairman's intervention. After Ahern responded to the chairman's intervention, it wasn't at all clear that anything had changed.
The whole question of Ahern receiving money because of his political position, but using this money for personal expenditure or just banking it, hung over yesterday's sitting.
The issue arose as the tribunal barrister Des O'Neill SC asked Ahern about money used to open an account with the Irish Permanent Building Society, Drumcondra, on January 31st, 1994. The account was opened with a cheque for £5,000, half of which was lodged to the account.
There were a series of lodgements to the account over the following years, up to June 1997, when the balance then existing, £38,602, was put towards Ahern's purchase of his current home.
The bulk of the money lodged over the years was, Ahern told the tribunal, pay cheques from his employment as a politician, with the round figures being explained by the cheques being lodged and cash being withdrawn, leaving a round figure amount. He would not have received round-figure pay cheques. There are no records or documents to support this.
The Taoiseach said he believed the £5,000 cheque used to open the account came from a company and was given to him as a personal donation. If it had been a political donation, he said, he would not have lodged it to an account the funds from which were to be put towards the purchase of his house.
At the time of the lodgement, he was minister for finance but he did not declare the gift to the Revenue Commissioners. He said he had made a voluntary disclosure in relation to the amount, following the initiating of correspondence with the Revenue in 2006.
Ahern said he believed the £5,000 cheque was a gift to him but could not be sure as to its source. His evidence made it clear it was not a unique occurrence. "At times, but not many times, an individual would give you money and say it is for your personal use," he said.
However, having said he had placed the money in an account that was intended to go towards the purchase of a house and had in 2006 made a "voluntary disclosure" to the Revenue, Ahern also said the £5,000 may have been a "political donation".
The chairman intervened and pointed out and described the difference between personal gifts and political contributions.
The Taoiseach seemed to agree, but then, as is so often the case with him, also seemed to indicate the opposite. He said if people gave him a political donation he would always give it to his constituency, but then sometimes people gave him money for himself but "you tend to use that anyway" on buying raffle tickets and such like in your constituency, for which activities you had to use your own money. "I can't take it out of my constituency money." What he intended to say was unclear.
In the afternoon, O'Neill turned to another account in the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra.
This one was opened by Ahern's long-term associate, Tim Collins, in June 1989. The name on the account was B/T, the address was care of the branch, and the signatory was Collins. A form he signed stated he was the owner of the funds in the account and was not acting as a nominee.
A Davy Stockbrokers cheque for £5,000 made out to Ahern was lodged to the account in January 1993. There have been no lodgements or withdrawals made to the account since 1995, when new legislation governing the lodgement of money by constituency organisations was introduced. The current balance on the account is €47,803.
Ahern said the account was a contingency account to be used on St Luke's. B/T, he said, stood for building trust.
He said the existence of the account was known to the officer board in Dublin Central. He wasn't sure, however, if that was recorded in writing anywhere.
Ahern's constituency organisation has been granted separate legal representation at the tribunal.