THE MAN who controlled the account from which Celia Larkin was given £30,000 in 1993 has denied that the account held money for the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Tim Collins, a long-time associate of Mr Ahern and a trustee of his St Luke's constituency centre, rejected the suggestion at the Mahon tribunal yesterday that the "B/T" in the account's name stood for "Bertie and Tim" and not "building trust" as Mr Ahern has told the tribunal.
Tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC had made the suggestion after pointing out that a business account run by Mr Collins and former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson was regularly identified in bank lodgement dockets as the "D/T" account.
During his day-long evidence Mr Collins repeatedly said he had no memory of, or explanation for, a series of matters put to him by Mr O'Neill.
As well as the B/T account he was also asked about other bank accounts operated by him and into which substantial lodgements were made in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The tribunal heard that the funds lodged were political donations to Mr Ahern's constituency operation, but that Mr Collins did not have to account to officers of Mr Ahern's cumann or the Fianna Fáil Dublin Central constituency organisation for the accounts. At the same time the constituency officers were operating accounts, including election campaign accounts, to which substantially smaller amounts of money were being lodged.
The B/T account was opened in 1989 and still exists but Fianna Fáil Dublin Central has not been able to provide the tribunal with "a single document" referring to the account, Mr O'Neill said.
The account currently has a balance in excess of €47,000. Mr Collins said it was money set aside "for a rainy day".
The tribunal has discovered that in October 1994, when sterling and the Irish pound were at parity, £20,000 in sterling cash was exchanged at the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra for £20,000 Irish pounds and that immediately afterwards £20,000 was lodged to the "B/T" account there. The records show that the two transactions occurred immediately after each other, at the same teller machine. Mr Collins said he had no memory of the lodgement.
Mr Collins said an August 1994 withdrawal from the account of £20,000 cash from the B/T account had been so it could be used on work required on a wall in St Luke's that was "sinking". It was envisaged that another trustee, builder Joe Burke, would organise the work. He said he left the money "in the office" at St Luke's for Mr Burke to collect. Members of the public laughed when Mr Collins was asked if Mr Burke collected it and he replied: "I'd imagine that he did."
Mr Collins said that in the event no work was carried out and the money was relodged in October. He had no memory of any sterling being involved. "I'm assuming that's the £20,000 that was never used for the work on the house."