Month: March 2008

The evidence at the Tribunal today was nothing short of explosive. Unfortunately it received scant coverage.

First, the manager of Irish Permanent Building Society, where Ahern had his personal account.

Blair Hughes says he remembers Sterling transactions. Documentary evidence proves it. This directly contradicts Ahern’s story that they were salary lodgments. He also said the B/T account, which was held in the same branch, had no connection whatever to St Luke’s or Fianna Fail. He assumed B/T stood for Bertie and Tim, at the time. He had no evidence it was anyone else’s account. Hughes also seen Grainne Caruth in person in the branch, and believes she was involved in Sterling transactions into the personal accounts of Ahern.

Secondly,Ken McDonald of the same branch. He more or less concurred with Hughes. There was also at least one foreign exchange lodgment to what is variously referred to as the B+T, B/T and BxT account.

Thirdly, is the devasting account of Grainne Caruth.

Here is a woman who earned £66 a week, or about £3,500 a year. She was paid by one of Des Richardson’s odd companies, Willdover.

On March 9, 1994, the following happened:

10.24am: £4,000 Sterling changed to Irish and lodged.
10.28am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged.
10.31am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Cecilia Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.
10.33am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Georgina Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.

On May 9, 1994, the following happened.

10.56am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Georgina Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.
10.58am: £1,000 Sterling was changed and lodged into Cecilia Ahern’s account. The docket was signed by Caruth.

Later in October that year, Caruth signed more lodgment dockets in relation to £4,000 Sterling.

In April 1995, Cyprian Brady TD lodged over £10,000 to the account.

In December 1995, Caruth’s name appears again, this time a £5,000 lodgment.

And does Caruth remember any of this? In one day, lodging the equivalent of two years’ salary? In Sterling?

Nope. Not a bit.

The Chairman was incredulous. She has contradicted previous evidence. She denies she was involved in Sterling transactions.

Her story is incredible. And she could be the next to break after a night to ponder, ala Frank Dunlop.

Donagh over at Dublin Opinion has a good, and indeed lengthy summation of the Tim Collins/Boyne site deal. One would wonder whether Ahern got a fee from Collins.

Nowhere in the media have I seen this tabulation. It is a record of the transactions the Tribunal have postulated involved foreign exchange.

Property developer Tom Gilmartin has said that he had been told sometime in 1992 by Owen O’Callaghan that Bertie Ahern TD had been paid by Mr O’Callaghan the sum of £80,000 made up of £50,000 in 1989 and £30,000 on an unspecified date.

It should be remembered that Mr Ahern had no bank account in those years, only opening his first bank account in December 1993. So if he did receive cash bribes in Irish punts or foreign currencies then he would have had no bank accounts in which to lodge them.

There are four main foreign exchange lodgments:

* The £24,838.49 lodgment on October 11, 1994 equates to £25,000 Sterling
* The £28,772.90 lodgment on December 5, 1994 equates to $45,000 US dollars

* The £9,743.74 lodgment on June 22, 1995 equates to £10,000 Sterling
* The £19,142.92 lodgment on December 1, 1995 equates to £20,000 Sterling

The sterling lodgments equate to £55,000 Sterling (circa £53,000 punts)
The dollar lodgments equate to $45,000 US Dollars (circa £30,000 punts)

Added up, the foreign exchange lodgments amount to £82,498.05.

It’s a figure very close to the original allegation, isn’t it?

Hmm. It gets better. Let’s assume that O’Callaghan gave the £55,000 Sterling to Ahern in 1989. Obviously currencies fluctuate, so if it was his intent to give £50,000 Irish in 1989 then he would have had to have given more Sterling. In early 1990, the only figures I am able to find, the Sterling/Punt exhange rate was £1stg to £0.91 punts.

In 1989 therefore, £55,000 Sterling would equate to about £50,050 Irish, if we take that sample exchange rate.

Since the allegation for the £30,000 does not mention a date, except to say that it was in 1992 or before, I cannot check it against exchange rates. But if we assume that the exchange took place in the same year, 1989, then in early 1990, $1 bought you about £1.58 punts. That sample rate equals $48,400. Obviously if the exchange rate was about £1.50, then it would equate to $45,000 in 1989. I cannot check if this is the case.

Update: This website provides some tantalising data. In 1989 the US dollar exchnage rate was £1.41 on average. But in early 1990 it was £1.58. This leads me to believe that in 1989 it is entirely plausible that O’Callaghan bought $45,000 with £30,000 punts.

But since Ahern would have had to have been Minister for Finance we must limit our search to 1991 and 1992. Between April and October 1991, The US dollar traded a median price of £1.50. Between July and October 1992, it also traded at around that level. This provides us with two windows during which an exchange could have taken place with regard to the Golden Island tax designation, which Ahern signed in the dying minutes of the FF/Labour government in 1994.

Confused?

I’ll put it simply. The totals of sterling and dollar lodgments to his accounts would equate exactly with the £80,000 Ahern is said to have received in 1989 currency values.

Of course, this is all just speculation.

But I do wonder is the Tribunal aware of these calculations.

One of the very first reactions I got to reading the transcript of Tim Collins is the following:

Rehearsed.

Between Q.1 and Q.200 Collins is vague about everything. He can’t remember. He doesn’t know. He can’t remember. Don’t know. Just can’t remember anything, it was all so long ago. Most of his answers amount to that in their totality.

But you get the Q.68. Collins is being asked about a £10,000 lodgment to the B/T account on January 31, 1993. This was just after the general election of 1992, but the lodgment was made into an account unconnected with the election. Collins is asked to explain.

As if by magic, he remembers everything. You can’t shut him up.

Well the period of time would have been over the Christmas period, so it would have been put in after, after Christmas.
The situation on the building trust account is that when the House Committee, which were four or five members, five members, decided that if we had a surplus monies coming in and it was decided by the committee and various members of the committee that we would put a sinking funding together called a building trust in the event of and my view at the time, in the event of anything ever happening to Bertie Ahern got knocked down or anything like that, the trustees would not be held responsible for any debt on St. Luke’s and to this day I hold that view, although some of the members have since died.

And where we thought we could possibly, we had enough money for the election, we would put money in or cheques or whatever into the building trust account. And that was the whole idea behind the building trust for, call it a rainy day, a sinking fund, call it what you like. But that was my view on it and it was particularly another member that has since deceased as well, that was his view as well. That we would have a rainy fund day there. Because we bought St. Luke’s and it gave problems. At the end of the day I, particularly myself, I wasn’t the youngest at the time, that I didn’t want to be held responsible for it all, any debt on the house, you know.

What the hell is he on about?

Davy Stockbrokers donated £5,000 towards Ahern’s election campaign, on November 11, 1992. That cheque, along with another cheque for £5,000 was not lodged until January. It just sat in St Luke’s apparently. All the way through the election campaign. And then it was lodged to the B/T account after the election. Into an account in the name of Tim Collins.

But on the same day as Collins opened that bank account back in 1992, the FF organisation opened an account too, for the purpose of the election.

The B/T account raised £28,730.

The Dublin Central constituency election account raised £500.

And by the time the election was over, the account was overdrawn to £1,572.65.

Asked why this was so, Collins said: “I can’t explain that.” (Q59)

I’m not normally one to blow my own trumpet, but this time I make an exception.

Ten months ago now, myself and Anthony came across a curious passage in a book about Bertie Ahern. The passage detailed how St Luke’s was bought, and the very strange circumstances in which it was renovated. Some folk over on Politics.ie also had the St Luke’s deal flagged.

Now it appears that St Luke’s, and constituency funding, go to the core of all the money sloshing around Drumcondra.

If I was a betting man, I would make the following punt:

a) Money was being collected for the purpose of funding an election campaign and/or constituency funds in 1989 and 1992.

b) Large amounts of donations ended up in accounts not directly linked with the constituency or with Fianna Fail.

c) Ahern, and members of his inner circle know of the existence of these accounts.

Conclusion: Money intended for Fianna Fail ended up in other bank accounts.

It’s not exactly out there given the context of other members of Fianna Fail taking money that was meant for the party but ending up in their own pockets. CJH, Pee Flynn to name two.

One has to ask: Why are FF not upset about this? And have the gardai been made aware?