Account where donation lodged not disclosed to tribunal

Davy donation:An account into which a £5,000 donation to Bertie Ahern from Davy Stockbrokers was lodged was not disclosed to the Mahon tribunal, it emerged yesterday.

Davy Stockbrokers made the donation to the Taoiseach for his general election campaign in 1992, the tribunal heard.

The cheque was written on November 11th, 1992, and lodged to a "BT" account at the Irish Permanent Building Society on January 28th, 1993.

Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said Davy told the tribunal they did not have any record of a background to the contribution.

However, Mr Ahern produced a compliment slip which he said had accompanied the cheque. The slip was signed by former Dublin football player Robbie Kelleher and said "Best of luck in the election". Mr Ahern said Mr Kelleher had sent similar contributions to other political parties.

Mr O'Neill asked if the cheque had been posted. Mr Ahern responded: "How else would it come, by carrier pigeon?"

The BT account was opened by Tim Collins, a Fianna Fáil activist from Drumcondra and secretary of the finance committee for the 1992 election, the tribunal was told.

An application form read into the record showed that Mr Collins had agreed he was the sole holder of the account and it was not being held for the benefit of others.

Mr O'Neill said that if Mr Collins had died, the money in the account would have gone to his family. "Mr Collins's family are not like that," Mr Ahern responded.

"The money would have been returned."

Mr Ahern said "BT" stood for Building Trust, and the funds in it were set aside for work on St Luke's, the Drumcondra constituency office. It needed to be extended at the back, he said.

Mr O'Neill said the balance on the account was currently over €47,000 and there had been no activity on it since 1995, the year when the ethics in public office legislation was introduced. Mr Ahern said the account was a contingency fund for St Luke's.

Mr O'Neill said that in January 2008, a letter was received by the building society, signed by Mr Collins, requesting that other names be added to the account and that it be called the "Building Trust/ House Committee Account".

Mr Ahern said that though the house committee's name was not on the account from the beginning, it was dealing with the house committee's business. "To imply that it was something else, I'd have to strongly object."

Mr O'Neill asked why he had not declared the account to the tribunal in the order of discovery, when he disclosed 23 personal and political accounts. Mr Ahern said he didn't disclose it because he did not set it up and it was not for his benefit.