Head over to our T
July at the Tribunal
Read more about: Bertiegate, Fianna Fail, Tribunals 
The last full week in July will be an important one at the Mahon Tribunal. It will deal with some of the financial flows around Bertie in the early to mid 1990s. The tribunal will flesh out its claim that it can’t find evidence of any sterling deposit by Celia Larkin on behalf of Bertie (which in turn is linked back to the Manchester crew) but that there is circumstantial evidence of a $45,000 deposit by a person unknown. So it will be the relevant AIB staff, then Celia and Micheal Wall (he of the rent-to-buy arrangement with Bertie), and then Bertie himself. One wildcard: Tom Gilmartin is listed as a morning witness each day. His propensity for revisiting old statements and shaky memory have created a handy target for critics of the tribunals.
There are no more important months at the tribunal. It ceased to be of any importance years ago and is now about the lawers sucking as much money from the taxpayer before the economy goes bang and they can flit off to Dubai to sit on a beach and laugh at those left behind.
The proof of this is the idea that well into it’s second decade and second chairperson the tribunal is still seeking to add to it’s terms of reference because they see the current issues running out in two to three years. Also there isn’t a court of law in a civilised country that would base it’s morning sessions on whatever dream Tom Gilmartin had last night. It’s be coming more like the Salem witch trials every day. Any day now we’ll have “I saw Bertie Ahern, supping with the Devil” and worse still the tribunal will probably phone the vatican for advise on how best to pursue that line of investigation.
Time to end this farce now.