ANALYSIS:It is becoming clear that you have to take what Bertie Ahern says with a large grain of salt
DESPITE THE relentless, forensic examination of Bertie Ahern's finances by the tribunal over the past four years, the picture as to what was happening in the early 1990s remains obscure.
However, the tribunal's questioning of Ahern is providing quite an insight into the man himself. A first and obvious point is that you have to take what he says with a large grain of salt. A few months ago he said he used to keep small amounts of sterling cash in his safe in 1993.
This week, with his new evidence to deal with - that his cash savings in 1993 included £15,500 sterling - he said he would consider a few thousand pounds sterling to be a small amount.
Another feature of the man that has emerged clearly is that he has a remarkable ability to retain detail. On one occasion last year he launched into an extended monologue in which he reeled off a stream of dates and accounts and amounts. The three tribunal judges put their pens down and marvelled.
A further aspect of the man and one that formed part of the focus of yesterday's proceedings is his capacity for preparing the ground for problems he sees coming down the line. One strategy he has for this is engaging third parties.
Earlier this year the money trail led the tribunal to an account that had not been disclosed before, the B/T account. In time examination of this account raised suspicions that the money in it belonged to Ahern, and revealed that Celia Larkin had been given £30,000 from the account, which seemingly was funded with political donations. The tribunal was told the account was for the maintenance of St Luke's.
In hindsight, it would seem that Ahern and his camp panicked when they saw where the tribunal was going. Suddenly a distinction was being made between Ahern and the Fianna Fáil organisation in his constituency.
In response to the tribunal's requests for information from Ahern, the constituency organisation sought legal representation. Ahern said he would do all he could to get the constituency organisation to assist the tribunal in its inquiries, creating the impression that it was a matter outside his control.
It seemed bizarre at the time. Fianna Fáil in Dublin Central is presumably more used to asking how high, when Ahern tells it to jump.
Now we know that behind the scenes back in St Luke's Ahern was centrally involved in overseeing the information that was emerging from the constituency, and in preparing it for disclosure to the tribunal. He engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to prepare an analysis of the B/T account, and he supplied the accountants with all the information that went into their report. Meanwhile, in the witness box last February, he was responding to requests for information by saying it was a matter for constituency officers.
Engaging accountants to draft a report based solely on information he had mirrors what happened in 1997 when the election of that year was looming.
In 1992, when he'd come close to standing for party leader, journalists had asked about the ownership of St Luke's. That same year a legal document dated 1988 and stating that St Luke's was owned in trust for Fianna Fáil, was submitted for an official stamp.
In 1997 Ahern engaged David Byrne SC, to draft a report on the acquisition, ownership and funding of St Luke's. The purpose of the report was to have it available if reporters returned to the questions they'd been asking in 1992.
All the information Byrne got came from Ahern and his colleague, the late Gerry Brennan. There was no mention of the B/T account.