The lodging of two cheques totalling £10,000 in 1994 and 1995 to an account held by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has not been fully explained, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday. Fiona Gartlandreports.
A first cheque, for £5,000, was lodged by Mr Ahern on January 31st, 1994, to a new account he opened at the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra, the tribunal heard. A second cheque, also for £5,000, was lodged on December 21st, 1995, to the same account.
Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said there were no records, apart from Mr Ahern's statement of account, to trace the payments.
He said the Irish Permanent was unable to provide any details as to the source of the cheques.
"£5,000 then and now is a sizeable single amount," Mr O'Neill said. "This was not part of your earnings."
He said there were two identical sums, both paid by cheque, both unexplained and both lodged at year end.
Mr Ahern said: "We trawled . . . we tried to match up and check back with anybody I thought I'd received money from."
He said he believed the first cheque was a donation from an individual who worked for a particular company, but he could not confirm his belief because the individual was now dead and the company had no record of the contribution.
He said the second cheque may have represented money given to him by his brother, from funds that may have belonged to his father's estate.
Mr O'Neill asked if he believed the money was an inheritance. Mr Ahern said the money was given to him by his brother from money from his father, who died in December 1990.
He acknowledged that his mother had already given him a sum of £7,000 from her account in March 1994 and which was from his father's funds.
"I didn't ask my mother how she got it to be quite honest with you and I can't ask her now," Mr Ahern said.
He said he was trying to verify the £5,000 he got from his brother, but so far did not have a record of it.
Mr O'Neill said that in a report to the Revenue Commissioners written by Mr Ahern's accountant, Des Peelo, in 2006, he said both the £5,000 cheques were described as political donations. Mr Ahern said he thought so at the time, but repeated he now believed the second cheque came from his brother.
"You are offering two separate and distinct beliefs as to the sources of these payments," Mr O'Neill said.
"Sometimes I think you don't listen to me," Mr Ahern resplied. "I got £5,000 from my brother, I cannot prove it is that one . . . so I'm taking the position, the fair position, that I believe they were donations."
Mr O'Neill questioned Mr Ahern about his returns to the Revenue Commissioners.
"In 1994 you received a sum which you believed at the time to be a gift made to you . . . you did not make a return in relation to that?" Mr O'Neill asked.
"No, no," Mr Ahern said. He said he made a return relating to it in 2006.
Asked why he had kept no record of the contributions, he said that he was not a sole trader.
"Since I started as an accounts clerk in 1969 I've been PAYE," he said. "All of my income practically all of my life, with very few exceptions in my accounts . . . are PAYE returns. I don't have any other income, I've never had any other income, except for limited amounts."