Mahon Tribunal Told Ahern’s Figures Don’t Add Up

RTE is reporting that the Mahon Tribunal was told by an AIB official this afternoon that Bertie Ahern’s version of events surrounding the payments made to his account of nearly £25,000 “does not add up”. According to evidence given by Philip Murphy today, the account given by Bertie on how the money got to his account was not mathematically possible. This relates to the payment of £25,000 made to Bertie Ahern’s own account which he says was made up of the £16,000 from the whip-around and the 8,000 sterling from the Manchester dinner where he gave a talk.

One of a number being examined by the tribunal is the deposit of £24,838.49 in October 1994.The inquiry say the lodgment does not correspond with Mr Ahern’s explanation that it was made up of a goodwill loan of £16,500 from Irish friends and £8,000 sterling from Manchester businessmen.

But the inquiry says it does equate with a deposit of £25,000 sterling. They are querying the source of the money

…
It was put to Mr Murphy that it was a mathematical fact given exchange rates at the time that the deposit could not have been comprised of £16,500 in Irish money and either £8,000 sterling exactly or £8,000 pounds sterling approximately.

Mr Murphy agreed that for that to happen it would mean the bank had converted sterling coins, and the bank did not do this.
It was put to him that the figures provided by Mr Ahern did not add up. Mr Murphy replied ‘yes’.

Fortunately for Bertie his date with Mr Alan Mahon has been put back to September so the flack from the revelation that there are further discrepancies in the story may not turn into a feeding frenzy. However it leaves no doubt that the evidence of Celia Larkin on Thursday (pushed back from Wednesday) will become more important for the level to which her version of events matches the Taoiseach’s and what level of difference may be present.

Larkin will mostly discuss the other payment (the one which seems to translate into $45,000) which was lodged to her account so we can expect that the admission by the AIB official that Bertie’s figures don’t add up on his own account could turn into a matter for him to resolve. The fact that the AIB reckon its nigh on impossible for his current story to hold up there will need to be some tweaking done, again. If that happens, there could well be adjustments to the story which are quite important.

Having said that there is still no smoking gun, simply an admission that the Taoiseach has got his figures mixed up. Again.