A number of important questions remain unanswered about aspects of the finances of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern after his comments in the Dáil and on RTÉ, writes Colm Keena
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is scheduled to speak today in the Dáil about £8,000 sterling he received after attending a function in Manchester in 1994 while he was minister for finance.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has said Mr Ahern must identify the event involved, the donors involved, explain what the money was for, whether it was accepted as a political or personal donation, and whether it was a gift or a loan.
As well as the Manchester payment Mr Ahern has also over the past week spoken about a number of other payments or amounts. A number of questions still remain about aspects of these payments.
Mr Ahern has said Ir£22,500 was given to him in December 1993 and a further Ir£16,500 in 1994.
He has also spoken about Ir£50,000 which was saved by him and deposited in a bank account he opened in late 1993/early 1994.
The first amount at issue, Ir£22,500, was given to Mr Ahern during Christmas 1993. Mr Ahern has said the money came from eight friends and associates of his. It was raised by his solicitor, the late Gerry Brennan, as well as Mr Ahern's long-time associate and political fundraiser, Des Richardson, who was himself one of the contributors.
Mr Ahern said he accepted the money on the basis it was a loan. He said he used the money to settle a loan he had from the AIB in O'Connell Street, Dublin, and which had been taken out to pay legal fees he had settled at about this time. It is not clear why he had taken out a bank loan at a time when he says he had savings amounting to £50,000.
The largest of the Christmas 1993 payments, Ir£5,000, seemingly came from NCB stockbrokers and was given by its then managing director Pádraic O'Connor. If the money came from NCB rather than Mr O'Connor, then the question arises as to how such a payment could be categorised as a loan from a friend.
Also a week after Mr Ahern's dramatic TV interview, there is still nothing known about one of the eight donors he listed, Mick Collins.
Mr Ahern has said the second amount at issue, Ir£16,500, was raised in 1994 but has not said in what month. He said the four persons involved, who were not involved in the earlier collection, were friends of his. "They would have contributed at Christmas [ 1993] but they were good friends of mine". If they each gave the same amount, then they each contributed Ir£4,125.
One of the contributors, Barry English, was 27 or 28 years old at the time and Company Registration Office filings show he was still giving his address as being in Co Tipperary in 1996. He has since moved to Dublin and is a friend of Mr Ahern's long-time supporter, builder Joe Burke, who contributed to the second collection.
Mr Ahern said the second collection was organised by publican Dermot Carew. He said it was again a loan. The biggest outstanding question concerning this payment is, what exactly was it used for?
Some of the oddest comments from Mr Ahern came in relation to Ir£50,000 he said he saved in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Mr Ahern said that during the period 1987 to November 1993, "I had no account in my name". Despite that he "saved money during that period and I'd saved quite a substantial amount of money because it was from the time I was lord mayor in 1986. I'd saved in the order of Ir£50,000".
He said that during his separation from his wife he agreed to provide £20,000 towards his childrens' education. "I also had to pay off other bills, so the money I'd saved was gone."
Mr Ahern has not said where he kept this money while he was saving it or whether it was retained in cash somewhere. He has also not said what the bills were that were settled with the Ir£30,000 that remained after education expenses were provided for. During a part of this period when he had no bank account in his name, he was a serving minister for finance.
Mr Ahern's position seems to be that he saved money from his earnings and then, in either late 1993 or early 1994, he opened an account in his own name and deposited £50,000 cash, which was then paid out for the reasons referred to above.
It seems from his comments that he is now being asked, or has been asked, to account for this money. Mr Ahern told RTÉ he had given all his bank account details to the Mahon (planning) tribunal but not "the court documents". This is believed to be a reference to confidential documents relating to financial aspects of his separation.