The digout boys

During the course of his employment [...], his financial remuneration was not sufficient to meet his immediate financial requirements, and he experienced financial difficulties. He said he received assistance from his friends [...], in the form of loans. There was no formal structure to these loans. There was no interest charge, nor was there any fixed schedule for repayment. Those making the loans did not intend that the sums advanced would be treated as gifts [...], but were content to receive their money back, once he was in a position so to do.

Yea, we’ve heard it all before, haven’t we? But it’s not Ahern being talked about here. It’s PJ Mara.

Mara was Press Secretary to Fianna Fáil between 1983 and 1987. In 1987 he was appointed Government Press Secretary, and he held this position until February 1992, when he left the Public Service to move into the private sector.

Apparently he was not paid enough as Press Secretary, so he sought some ‘digouts’ from friends - Dermot Desmond and one Oliver Barry. Remember him? Mr Barry, owner of Century Radio, gave a corrupt payment of £35,000 to Ray Burke in 1989. A little later Century’s fees were reduced. Barry was also found to have obstructed and hindered the work of the Flood/Mahon Tribunal.

But I guess Mara was stuck for a few quid, what with his Isle of Man bank account that he “forgot” to tell the Tribunal about. Incidentally, after that time, in 1990, Mara was on £48,000 a year.

Oliver Barry remembered lending Mr. Mara a sum of £2,000 on one occasion between 1982 and 1984, and Mr. Desmond believed that he advanced sums in the region of £46,000 to Mr. Mara between 1986 and 1989. Mr. Desmond did not produce any formal record of such payments, but said that they had been made by cheque and that, these cheques were a record of the loan having been made.

A few years later Ahern allegedly got some ‘digouts’ also from wealthy businessmen. Not that anything would have been done in return mind you.

You could be forgiven for forgetting, but between 1997 and 2002, the Tribunal completed and reported its work. While FF continue to say the Tribunal has trundled along for 11 years, in reality, Mahon began the meat of its work in January 2003. Everything before that is complete thanks to the Second Interim Report by Justice Flood.

And as the Irish Times muses today, what exactly is the connection between Midia Ltd, owned by one Norman Turner, and the son of Mara, John Patrick Mara?