Bertie Ahern in Front of the Mahon Tribunal

Updpate 21:25: full transcript from Mahon’s website. Gavin reckons there is some meat to it and is looking to take over from Vinnie Brown at 10pm.

Update 15:45: Ahern denies receiving dollars and insists lodgement was in Sterling.

Update 13:14: Bertie tried to limit Mahon to inquiring into his accounts while they were dormant from 1989 to 1992, the tribunal subsequently extended the period to include December 1995.

Update 11:30 am: Bertie has accused the Tribunal of leaking documents which did him enormous political damage, or at least were designed to. He absolutely rejects that he received any sum in dollars, not least $45,000. The Taoiseach read a prepared statement on the matter before beginning questioning. Much of the early questions deal with the allegations by Tom Gilmartin viz Owen O Callaghan, allegations of monies received that Bertie denies out of hand.

Well its here, the day the feeding frenzy has been waiting for for months. Bertie is due to begin giving evidence in front of Mahon this morning, for those of you looking to get the lowdown on all this check out some of the posts by Simon on what is bertiegate and todays background piece by Colm Keena.

The big development in the past two days to my ears is the manner in which Wall first and then Larkin managed to reintroduce the idea that the briefcase contained sterling and punts, a departure from initial testimony. No doubt the Greens will look on edgily as the proceedings unfold over the two days, with a conference coming up soon over the treaty.

Updates posted later, feel free to comment away on the thread.

From Ireland.com: “Mr Murphy queried Ms Larkin about the lodgement of £28,772.90 to an account she opened with AIB O’Connell Street, in her own name, in December 1994. The money had come from Mr Wall, who is based in Manchester, and who at the time was in the process of buying a house in Dublin which Mr Ahern was to rent. Ms Larkin, he said, had told the tribunal by way of a memo last year that the odd figure of the lodgement was because it was the result of sterling being exchanged into Irish pounds.

Yesterday Ms Larkin said she had clarified and corrected her original recollection and could now state that she had brought the money to the bank in a briefcase but had not looked inside the briefcase. She could not say how much sterling cash had been in the briefcase, or whether there had been sterling and Irish pounds.

…

As well as the December 1994 lodgement, Ms Larkin also told the tribunal about collecting a “bag or parcel” containing £50,000 in cash from AIB O’Connell Street six weeks later, on January 19th, 1995. She said Mr Ahern had asked her to withdraw the cash, which was his but was in an account in her name. Mr Ahern, who was by then leader of the opposition, had waited outside in a car while she collected the parcel of cash. Mr Ahern then drove her and the money back to St Luke’s, she said.

This money was also to be used on the house Mr Wall was purchasing. During her evidence yesterday Ms Larkin said: “Bertie dealt in cash. I think he felt more comfortable with it.”

…

The tribunal has discovered that less than £2,000 worth of sterling was taken in by AIB O’Connell Street on the day Ms Larkin made the £28,772 deposit.

It has also discovered that the amount lodged equates to $45,000 exactly when one of the dollar exchange rates in use on the day is applied.”