Ahern tells of `verbal bashing' by developer over money

Mr Bertie Ahern got a "verbal bashing" from a property developer he met in 1996 over the manner in which Fianna Fail had treated a donation the developer had given the party seven years earlier, the Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr Ahern, who was leader of the Opposition at the time, said he had to "apologise fairly profusely" to Mr Mark Kavanagh, of the Custom House Dock Development Company, at a function he attended in May of that year.

Mr Kavanagh had made a £100,000 donation to Fianna Fail in 1989, which he handed to the then party leader, Mr Charles J. Haughey, at his home. Mr Haughey passed only £25,000 of the money to Fianna Fail. Mr Kavanagh never got a receipt for either the £25,000 or the larger amount.

Mr Ahern met Mr Kavanagh just before a dinner attended by representatives of the construction industry. He had come there to address a question-and-answer session about the party's policy and other matters for the next election.

"I recall it very well because he was extremely annoyed," Mr Ahern said. "He said it was bad form. The reason he hadn't contributed [to the party] since was because there had been no acknowledgement, no recognition."

Mr Ahern said Mr Kavanagh's donation had come to his attention when Mr Eoin Ryan snr had attempted to secure another donation for the party from the developer. Mr Kavanagh let it be known to Mr Ryan he was "well disposed towards the Fianna Fail party and was inclined to give further financial support to it". Mr Ryan reported to Mr Ahern that all that was stopping Mr Kavanagh from making a donation was that he "was annoyed at the absence of a receipt for the earlier contribution". Mr Ahern replied that he "would check this out.

"At no stage during the course of that conversation, or indeed any other conversation with Eoin Ryan snr was there any mention made that the earlier contribution had in fact been paid through Mr Charles J. Haughey," Mr Ahern told the tribunal. Nor did Mr Ryan mention the amount of the contribution to Mr Ahern. It was "simply described as being a substantial donation".

The then financial controller of the party, Mr Sean Fleming, later confirmed to Mr Ahern that Mr Kavanagh had made a "substantial" donation "in the order of £25,000".

When he saw Mr Kavanagh before the question-and-answer session, Mr Ahern "called him aside . . . and apologised to him.

"He told me that he would give a donation again and I assured him it wouldn't be treated in such a shoddy way.

"He'd been treated shoddily. I was left with the impression that it wasn't just - I think maybe there was no contact, maybe nobody spoke to him or maybe he was invited to nothing or whatever, but he was annoyed . . . I have to say I don't think it was just a receipt, quite frankly."

At the end of the 1996 meeting Mr Kavanagh gave Mr Ahern a new donation of £50,000 in the form of a cheque made out to Fianna Fail.

Asked by Mr Coughlan if he remarked to Mr Kavanagh on the size of the donation, Mr Ahern replied, "He gave me an envelope. I hope it was white. I didn't open it."

The first time Mr Ahern became aware Mr Kavanagh's 1989 donation totalled £100,000 was last Wednesday when he was approached by Mr Sean Fleming after a parliamentary party meeting, he told the tribunal.

Mr Fleming told Mr Ahern that he had attended a private session with the tribunal on the previous Monday and that he'd been informed by the tribunal of a further £75,000 from Mark Kavanagh in 1989 in addition to the £25,000 which had been received by the party.