ANALYSIS:A trustee of St Luke's in Drumcondra seemed to know little about how it was purchased, writes Colm Keena.
ALTHOUGH TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was rarely mentioned at yesterday's hearing, the evidence heard was all about him and none of it was reassuring.
As well as raising more worrying questions about the use or abuse of money raised on the back of his powerful political position, yesterday's evidence also had the effect of moving the scenario being examined backwards in time, to the 1980s.
Mr Ahern's constituency centre, St Luke's, the tribunal heard, was purchased in May 1988 for £56,000. Tim Collins, who was involved in organising the purchase and is a trustee of the trust that owns the building, said "24 or 25" people came together and put up the money. A few minutes later he referred to "23 or 25" people. He did not seem to know if the money raised had been gathered together in any particular bank account.
At the time of the purchase Mr Collins and four others were appointed trustees of the trust, with Mr Ahern's associate and solicitor, the late Gerry Brennan, acting as solicitor. Normally trustees would be appointed by the settlors, ie the people who donated to the trust, but Mr Collins did not seem to know if any document had ever been drawn up which named the settlors or recorded his appointment as a trustee by them.
When he was directed to a reference in a legal document he had signed to the fact that the trustees were appointed by the "St Luke's Club", Mr Collins said it was "the first time I've come across that, St Luke's Club".
Overall Mr Collins gave the impression he knew less about the matter than the tribunal. During his last appearance at the tribunal, Mr Ahern said St Luke's was now worth approximately €1 million.
In the year the building was purchased, an account was opened with AIB Drumcondra called the CODR account. Mr Collins said the letters stood for Cumann O'Donovan Rossa, Mr Ahern's cumann, but tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC queried whether the account had any direct link with the cumann.
The opening lodgement to the account, in January 1988, was £22,955.13. By the end of the year £50,000 had been lodged to the account. The address on the account was Mr Ahern's office over Fagan's pub. In the same year, 1988, about £44,000 was withdrawn from the account. Why is not clear. The account was not used for the purchase of St Luke's. The cumann, the tribunal has heard, has about 20 members.
Yesterday's hearing heard another story of cash at St Luke's. The tribunal has already been told about Michael Wall and his suitcase of sterling, in December 1994, Mr Ahern and his £50,000 in cash in January 1995, the £30,000 sterling he says he bought with some of that cash, and held in his safe in St Luke's, and the cash he says he accumulated in his safe in St Luke's during the period 1987 to 1993 when he was involved in separation proceedings with his wife and, as he has said in numerous forums, he had no bank accounts.
Mr Collins opened an account he called the B/T account in 1989 and into which, the tribunal was told, he lodged "surplus" political donations; £30,000 from the account was given to Celia Larkin in 1993.
A cash withdrawal of £20,000 in August 1994 was left "in the office" in St Luke's by Mr Collins for fellow trustee Joe Burke to collect. Mr Collins "presumed" the money was collected.
A lodgement of £20,000 to the B/T account a few months later now seems to have been immediately preceded by the exchange of sterling cash.
This occurred in and around the same time as a lodgement by Mr Ahern to one of his AIB accounts of what he has said was money from a dig-out in the Beaumont House pub, and money given as a gift to him in Manchester. The tribunal has pointed out that the amount lodged equates to exactly £25,000 sterling.
The longer this story goes on, the more money it accumulates.