St Luke's trust:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that £30,000 from a building trust account opened in the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra was used to help the elderly relatives of a staff member at St Luke's.
The account was set up as a building trust for work required to be carried out on St Luke's, Mr Ahern's constituency office in Drumcondra. However, when the plight of the three elderly relatives of a member of staff became known to the "house committee", they decided to help out.
"The aged people would have had to go to court . . . they would have got a restricted use of part of the house," Mr Ahern said. He said they were frightened and had been told that other tenants would have moved in.
Mr Ahern said the problem created "a large emotional difficulty" for them. He said the committee agreed to lend £30,000 to the staff member in March 1993 and the money was paid to the vendor of the property.
The house now belonged to the staff member, he said. One of the elderly people concerned was "now well into her 90s".
Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said the building trust account appeared to be "some form of benevolent account".
He asked if the loan had been repaid. Mr Ahern said that it had.
"Do you know approximately when?" Mr O'Neill asked.
"It would have been after the first tribunal's letter, some time after the first tribunal's letter," Mr Ahern replied.
Mr O'Neill also asked about a £20,000 withdrawal in August 1994 from the same account. Mr Ahern said it was to repair structural problems at St Luke's.
After the money was withdrawn, they had received advice that the planned work was the wrong thing to do. It was decided not to carry it out and the money was relodged two months later.
