ANALYSIS:Political fundraiser Des Richardson told the tribunal that he did not have an account in Manchester, writes COLM KEENA.
A QUESTION that has hovered over the entire inquiry into the finances of the former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been the possibility that in the early 1990s he was in receipt of sterling from some source, or even had a sterling account somewhere.
The question has never been put directly to Ahern but he has made his position clear that he has disclosed all his accounts to the tribunal, and that all his income in the period came from his political work, other than the instances he has already outlined.
One of those instances involves approximately £8,000 cash given to him in Manchester. He has said he lodged this sterling along with the proceeds of the second Dublin dig-out to his AIB O'Connell Street account on October 11th, 1994.
The tribunal, however, has pointed out that the amount lodged equates to exactly £25,000, using one of the exchange rates in use on the day.
The tribunal has also discovered a £20,000 lodgement to the famous B/T account. That amount was lodged to the B/T account with the Irish Permanent, Drumcondra, on October 26th, 1994, ie two weeks after the AIB lodgement.
The Irish Permanent branch in Drumcondra is across the road from St Luke's.
Two days after the sterling lodgement to the B/T account, a lodgement of £5,000 was made to Ahern's personal account with the Irish Permanent, Drumcondra. It was one of a number of sterling lodgements made to the account in 1994.
The tribunal has been told that in December 1994 Manchester-based businessman Michael Wall handed a briefcase containing £30,000 sterling to Ahern, having travelled over with the money from Manchester.
During 1995, £30,000 sterling was lodged to Ahern's account with the AIB. He has said this was the relodgement of money he had taken out, converted to sterling, and then relodged.
All of which brings us to an aspect of the evidence heard yesterday from Ahern's close associate, Des Richardson.
Richardson has been heavily involved in the financial side of Ahern's political career for the past two decades. He has told the tribunal that in May 1994 he was given $10,000 in cash by businessman and casino promotor Norman Turner during a liquid lunch in Manchester.
He said the money was a donation to Fianna Fáil. He has said he brought the money back to Dublin and put it in the safe in the office where he was, at the time, working full-time as a Fianna Fáil fundraiser.
A note that was found in the files of the Fianna Fáil head office, and which was written by Richardson, refers to this money in scribbles where he is contemplating how he will settle a debt with Ulster Bank incurred as part of an unsuccessful fundraising venture.
The agreement to settle the debt was negotiated with the bank in October 1994, which indicates that the Turner money was still available at that date. Richardson's evidence was that it must have still been in his safe.
An internal memo written by a bank official in Mallow on November 21st, 1994, records him being told by another official that Richardson had said he had instructed a bank in Manchester to forward the funds to settle the debt.
A fax from Richardson at about the same time informed the branch in Mallow that he had issued instructions for the payment of the debt and had been advised that his instructions had been carried out.
Richardson's evidence was that the bank official has made a mistake, and that he never mentioned a bank in Manchester. He said he did not have a bank account in Manchester.
The money to settle the debt "didn't come from Manchester. It came from Baggot Street."
It has been shown that in fact the debt in Mallow was settled with money from an account in Baggot Street.
It is some coincidence if the bank official mistakenly understood he was being told money was coming from Manchester when that would prove, 14 years later, to sit so comfortably - or uncomfortably from Ahern's viewpoint - with other aspects of what was happening at the time in the former taoiseach's financial affairs.