Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia by Clifford Michael & Coleman Shane

Author:Clifford, Michael & Coleman, Shane [Clifford, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781444725759
Publisher: Hachette Books Ireland
Published: 2012-07-29T23:00:00+00:00

17

WHOSE MONEY IS IT ANYWAY?

Between December 1993 and December 1995, a total of £147,500 was lodged in Bertie Ahern’s AIB accounts and other accounts associated with Celia Larkin. This doesn’t include the £30,000 sterling – which might have been $45,000 – lodged in December 1994. His savings account in the Irish Permanent Building Society received in the region of £20,000 in this period as well as £15,500 sterling. The B/T account, in which Ahern said he had no beneficial interest, received £89,650 over a six-year period. Ahern and his associates claim that £20,000 of this was recycled money. In all, eighty-six lodgements to his accounts were examined. The sums flowing through his associated accounts – excluding B/T – in the two-year period exceeded £220,000, amounting to more than three times his salary. None of the lodgements to any of the accounts corresponds to a salary cheque from Ahern’s positions as TD or government minister.

Ahern has always maintained that his unorthodox financial activity during this period was entirely as a result of his marital difficulties. He also says that the only money he received was the two dig-outs, in December 1993 and September 1994, totalling £22,500 and £16,500 respectively; and the Manchester whip-around in May or September 1994, which yielded around £8,000.

Long after he gave evidence on these matters, he added that some of the sterling he had acquired came from winnings on horses in the UK. He was unable to specify how much.

He maintains that everything else that passed through his own or associated bank accounts was recycled money or, in the case of Michéal Wall’s suitcase of cash, money that was “made available” to him in relation to proposed accommodation arrangements. This money merely rested in his account for a few months.

His dealings should be placed in context. The legal separation of his marriage occurred around November 1993. The extensive inflows to and outflows from his accounts took place over the following two years, which gives some support to his claim. The various strands of his narrative are also supported by the sworn evidence of a number of people. In total, fourteen witnesses to the planning tribunal in 2007 and 2008 gave evidence that sat easily into Ahern’s overall narrative.

If the evidence given to the planning tribunal by these witnesses was totally accepted, it would lend huge weight to Ahern’s claims of complete innocence in these matters. Four of the eight donors to the first alleged dig-out in December 1993 testified that it occurred in the manner Ahern had outlined. All four donors to the alleged second dig-out echoed his version of events. John Kennedy, Michéal Wall and Tony Kett claimed they were present at the alleged whip-around in Manchester.

Wall backs up everything Ahern says about arrangements to rent and eventually buy his house in Beresford. Celia Larkin’s evidence paints a similar picture. Tim Collins and Joe Burke testified that the B/T account had nothing to do with Ahern. Grainne Carruth, a secretary at St Luke’s, gave evidence backing

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