Bertie Page 4

  Minister Dick Roche admits it is slightly ‘odd’ that the transposition to Irish law of the United Nations Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would allow for a Dr Strangelove who makes a large hole in the national territory to be tried summarily in the District Court, should the DPP so decide.

  22 October

  The Fianna Fáil faithful troop out to Bodenstown for the annual Theobald Wolfe Tone commemoration. Last year they commemorated an entirely different person named ‘Theobold’ on the invitations, but this year they just call him Wolfe Tone.

  A local apparatchik, addressing the throng, says that the Holy Trinity of Irish national heroes (Brian Boru, Red Hugh O’Donnell and Éamon de Valera, apparently) has now been joined by a fourth: Bartholomew Patrick Ahern.

  29 October

  Fianna Fáil support has zoomed for the third time in two weeks in the latest opinion poll, carried out by Red C for the Sunday Business Post. Party popularity is up six points. The Blueshirts are down two, while the Red Rose has wilted four.

  It’s been a Hallowe’en horror for the Opposition. Everything has blown up in their faces—or worse, as happened with a man in Sunderland who tried to launch a Black Cat Thunderbolt firework from an unusual angle and ended up with a ‘scorched colon’.

  PART TWO

  Evidence

  Chapter 3

  ST LUKE’S

  Bertie Ahern’s passionate care for his power base in Drumcondra and for the Dublin Central constituency was always a key element of his political character. He regularly came first in the country in the percentage of first-preference votes won in a poll and, apart from his initial general election campaign in 1977, was invariably elected on the first count in Dublin Central.

  He had a dedicated team of workers supporting him and a canvassing operation that was probably unrivalled in the state. Even during his period as party leader (when it was party policy to manage the vote in the various constituencies so as to get as many Fianna Fáil TDs as possible returned, by spreading the party vote among its candidates), Ahern breached the rule and sought as many first-preference votes for himself as he could. In the 2007 general election campaign a leaflet was delivered to houses in the part of the constituency where the present writer lives seeking first-preference votes for Ahern, second-preference votes for Cyprian Brady and third-preference votes for Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the former constituency TD Dr Dermot Fitzpatrick. It said that this was what the party wanted supporters to do ‘in your area’, but the same leaflet was delivered throughout the constituency. In this way Ahern gathered the vast bulk of the votes. Brady, who received only 939 first-preference votes, swept past Fitzpatrick after Ahern’s huge surplus was distributed and won the second seat. Brady was a member of Ahern’s inner circle, a group that considered itself to be part and parcel of Ahern’s electorally successful political career.

  The former Taoiseach Charles Haughey once famously dubbed these people the Drumcondra Mafia, and the name stuck. They were fiercely loyal and driven supporters of Ahern who acted not out of party loyalty or because of any particular political beliefs but because of their friendship and association with Ahern, and because of a team spirit that, for many of them, went back to their younger days. Ahern would in time appoint some of them to state boards, and in these and other ways many benefited financially as a result of their involvement with him. Patronage has always been an essential part of Ahern’s recipe for political success.

  If the streets of Drumcondra and the constituency of Dublin Central were the stuff of Ahern’s beginnings and the springboard for his political career, his constituency centre, St Luke’s, was at the heart of his Tammany Hall, ward-boss operation. It is a detached red-brick building in Lower Drumcondra Road, close to the Tolka, along a stretch of a busy thoroughfare where most of the buildings are commercial. A former doctor’s surgery, it was purchased for £56,000 in 1988 and renovated for use as a constituency centre with upstairs living accommodation. Apart from Sinn Féin representatives, most TDs tend to operate from rented or temporarily donated constituency offices. Ahern’s permanent purchased base was unusual in Irish politics and was indicative of his commitment and drive, of the strength of his local organisation and of the ability of Ahern and his supporters to raise money. The Mahon Tribunal’s inquiries into Ahern’s personal finances led to a partial examination of where the money to buy St Luke’s came from and who exactly owned the building. It should have been a straightforward, provable matter, though it proved to be anything but.

  The property was bought from a Catherine Daly. A contract for the sale was signed on 19 November 1987 by Daly, as vendor, and by Des Richardson, Joseph Burke and Tim Collins, as purchasers. Richardson’s name on the contract for sale was typed, as was Daly’s, while those of Burke and Collins were handwritten. When asked about this in May 2008 at the tribunal, Richardson rejected any suggestion that he had initially signed the document as sole purchaser.

  The deed of assignment—the document that records the actual transfer of the property—is filed in the Registry of Deeds. It is dated 18 May 1988 and signed by Daly as vendor and by five persons as purchasers: Richardson, Burke, Collins, James Keane and Patrick Reilly (‘Paddy the Butcher’). The solicitor acting for the purchasers was Gerard Brennan, a supporter of Ahern. On its own, the document shows that the property belonged to these five men. The Registry of Deeds has no record of any mortgage taken out on the property at the time of the purchase, and no-one has suggested that there was one. The property was bought outright. In its intense examination of Ahern’s finances, and of his and his constituency’s various bank accounts, the Mahon Tribunal never managed to find an account from which the funds that were used to purchase the house originated. Nor were any of the witnesses who gave evidence able to point to an account where the money had resided before being passed to Daly.

  All five of the trustees were close supporters of Ahern and minor business figures. Burke was a builder and renovator of pubs. Collins had a tiling business. Richardson, an engineer by training, was involved in recruitment services. Reilly had his own butcher’s business in Stoneybatter and supplied meat to hospitals. Keane was involved in a DIY centre called Big J.

  Before the purchase of St Luke’s, Fianna Fáil in the North Dublin and Dublin Central constituencies used a building in Amiens Street, the ownership of which went back decades. During the mid-1980s it was decided that the building should be sold, and when it was, in 1989, the proceeds were distributed among a number of Fianna Fáil organisations. In 2008 a spokesperson for the party told the Sunday Tribune: ‘The beneficiaries were three of the local constituency comhairles in Dublin. The proceeds of the sale were divided as agreed. The proceeds that accrued to Dublin Central are held in a constituency account.’ In October 2006 Ahern mentioned the Amiens Street sale while being questioned in the Dáil about his personal finances. ‘The house was sold by the trustees and officers of the party, and I probably was a trustee. The money is in the accounts.’

  From the evidence heard by the tribunal it appears that the money received by Ahern and his operation in 1989 was still on deposit in 2008 in an investment account. It was not used to purchase St Luke’s or to pay off any debts that had arisen from its purchase.

  Since he was first elected to the Dáil in 1977 Ahern operated from a number of places. As well as his office in Leinster House and the use of Amiens Street, he had also kept an office in his mother’s house near All Hallows College in Drumcondra. Later he rented offices above Fagan’s pub in Drumcondra Road, almost opposite St Luke’s.

  St Luke’s was very much seen as Ahern’s constituency centre, not the party’s, and it was a physical representation of his power in the constituency. The building was also a representation of his superior strength as a politician. In the period between the breaking up of his marriage in 1987 and his moving to a house in Beresford Avenue in 1995, Ahern made use of the apartment in the upstairs portion of St Luke’s as his living quarters. His former supporter Royston Brady re
calls that the upstairs bathroom was the first room he ever encountered with under-floor heating and that Ahern insisted that they take off their shoes to feel its warmth. No-one else used the apartment.

  After Haughey’s resignation as Taoiseach and party leader in 1992 there was speculation that Ahern might contest the leadership of the party, which would otherwise go to Albert Reynolds. As was so often the case when confronted with a sudden difficult decision, Ahern appeared to dither. If he went forward and won he would become leader; but if he lost, Reynolds might consider him a threat and seek to isolate him. If he held back and bided his time he could slip into the role of heir-apparent; but what if Reynolds held on to the job for a long period? His time might come and pass.

  It appeared that Ahern didn’t know what to do, and both his supporters and those of Reynolds grew increasingly frustrated. There were references by Reynolds supporters to Reynolds’s family life and allusions to the people’s right to know ‘where their Taoiseach slept at night.’ Ahern was nominally living at home with his mother but was also in a relationship with his partner, Celia Larkin. This was seen by some members as a political disadvantage for a party leader, and it appeared that if Ahern was to put his name forward his marital status would become an issue. According to Bertie Ahern: Taoiseach and Peacemaker (1998) by Ken Whelan and Eugene Masterson, Ahern and Reynolds met in the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin to discuss the matter. Ahern told the authors that he had informed Reynolds that he was not going to contest the leadership and that Reynolds made it clear that he ‘wouldn’t stay around very long.’ Ahern held back, and Reynolds, when he took over, kept Ahern as Minister for Finance while sacking an unprecedented number of his Government colleagues. However, the use against Ahern of his marital situation had been noted by Ahern and his supporters.

  During this period there was an editorial in the Sunday Tribune that read:

  In terms of age and style, Bertie Ahern would represent a break, but there are questions about his finances which are worrying. He is currently living in a house which ‘supporters’ bought for him and which cost over £120,000. What hostages to fortune have been given in that transaction?

  Ahern, who did not have a practice of picking fights with the media, was sufficiently concerned by this to ask his solicitor, Gerry Brennan, to write a letter of complaint and seek an apology. He got his response in the following week’s edition.

  In the course of an editorial on the Fianna Fáil succession last Sunday, we stated that ‘supporters’ of Bertie Ahern TD had purchased for him a house costing over £120,000. We inquired what hostages to fortune had been given in that transaction. We have been contacted by a solicitor on behalf of Mr Ahern who informs us that while Mr Ahern has the use of an office and an upstairs apartment in the premises he has no interest whatsoever in the ownership of the house which is held in trust for the local Fianna Fáil organisation. We are glad to take this earliest opportunity of correcting any error in this regard and insofar as we have misrepresented the situation and insofar as our query concerning hostages to fortune is unfair to Mr Ahern, we apologise for any embarrassment or hurt this may have caused him.

  The barrister David Byrne was appointed by Ahern as his first Attorney-General in 1997. Two years later Ahern appointed him to the European Commission. Byrne had become one of Ahern’s advisers in November 1994, when he at last became leader of Fianna Fáil. In May 2008 Byrne was called to give evidence to the Mahon Tribunal about St Luke’s after Ahern’s solicitor wrote to the tribunal asking that the former commissioner be called. Some weeks earlier the tribunal had been given documents that, it was told, had been found in St Luke’s among the voluminous files kept there. They concerned the purchase and ownership of St Luke’s.

  The tribunal was told that in April or early May 1997, when Ahern was preparing for the general election that would see him elected as Taoiseach, Byrne received a packet in the Law Library from Brennan. It was marked ‘private and confidential’, came with a compliments slip (but with no covering letter) and contained a number of documents concerning St Luke’s, which included copies of the Sunday Tribune editorial, Brennan’s letter in response and the paper’s apology and clarification.

  Also included were two letting agreements, dated 10 January 1992 and 21 January 1994, between the legal owners of the property and Ahern and concerning his occupation of the building, the deed of assignment for St Luke’s, a ‘Declaration of Trust’ (in which the five men named in the Registry of Deeds in relation to St Luke’s said they were holding the property in trust) and some other newspaper articles.

  Byrne told the tribunal he could not recall receiving instructions from Brennan or Ahern in relation to the matter but presumed that he was contacted because the issue of St Luke’s had arisen when Ahern was considering contesting the party leadership in 1992. In the period before the 1997 general election, when Ahern was hoping to become Taoiseach, Byrne said ‘there was a desire to, as it were, draw all the features of this story together into one place and also to have an eye on the legal aspects of this.’ He was to draft a document on St Luke’s, and if there were new queries by the media about the matter during the campaign it could be referred to as part of Ahern’s response.

  Byrne met Ahern and Brennan twice to discuss the issue and produced a draft report that was never completed, because on 24 May 1997, twelve days after the second consultation, Brennan died unexpectedly. Des Richardson phoned Byrne to tell him of Brennan’s death. Byrne spoke to a solicitor, David Anderson, who, with the approval of the Law Society, took over the management of Brennan’s practice before its sale. Byrne also contacted another solicitor, Hugh O’Donnell, who subsequently, with the appropriate authority, took control of Ahern’s files in the Brennan practice. Anderson later acted for Ahern in dealings relating to his home in Beresford Avenue.

  Henry Murphy, senior counsel for the tribunal, pointed out that it had received a letter from Ahern’s solicitor concerning the draft report after it had been found among the files in St Luke’s. The letter said the document was

  in fact prepared for and on behalf of the Fianna Fáil constituency organisation and various components thereof, including the trustees of St Luke’s. As you know such entities are represented [at the tribunal] by Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co., solicitors, and I would suggest that you now seek their authority on their clients’ behalf.

  In other words, the tribunal was being told that the report belonged not to Ahern but to the trustees and to Fianna Fáil and that it had been prepared not for Ahern but for these bodies. As it transpired, this was the exact opposite of the impression created by evidence the tribunal heard later.

  The draft report was dated 6 May 1997. The general election of that year was on 6 June. It was twenty-three paragraphs long and divided into seven sections. The title was ‘Report on acquisition, legal ownership and financing of St Luke’s 161 Lwr Drumcondra Road’. It dealt in brief with the decision to sell the Amiens Street building and said some of the proceeds of the sale were distributed among various cumainn, ‘and the balance was put on the Fianna Fáil deposit account for the constituency.’ It stated that the purchase price for St Luke’s was £56,000 and that it was expected that renovations totalling £48,497.90 would be required. According to the report, when stamp duty was included the total amount estimated to be required for the building was £107,859.

  To raise the funds necessary to purchase and renovate the premises, the St Luke’s Club was informally established at a meeting held in the Gresham Hotel on 3 December 1987. This meeting was attended by over 20 people, most of them from the constituency, who resolved having regard to the funds required, that this sum could be raised over a period of four to five years by 25 people giving a commitment to provide £1,000 each per annum. It was also resolved that St Luke’s should be purchased and that five of the members of the club should be appointed to act as trustees for the acquisition of the property. A resolution was also passed to the effect that the primary beneficiaries of the trust
would be the local Fianna Fáil party and the ultimate beneficiary the Fianna Fáil national party.

  The following paragraph said that the club—formed on 3 December 1987—had raised £16,000 by early 1988.

  It was resolved that a further £50,000 would be raised by a bank loan should this be necessary. The fund continued to increase in value and by late 1989 the fund had accumulated £73,200. This left a shortfall of £34,657. This occurred because a number of commitments made were not fulfilled or only partly fulfilled. (Check this paragraph.)

  In fact no bank loan was taken out. The note to check the contents of the paragraph for accuracy was, Byrne told the tribunal, indicative of the fact that the document was a work in progress that went no further after Brennan’s death. Although the document introduced the whole St Luke’s issue by dealing with the sale of the property in Amiens Street, none of the proceeds of its sale went to the purchase of St Luke’s. That part of the proceeds associated with Ahern was placed in the investment account, where it was still sitting in 2008 when the tribunal was investigating these matters.

  The two crucial issues for the report were the source of the funding and the ownership of the building. On the latter point the report stated:

  The property was acquired by deed of assignment to the five trustees in mid-1988. A deed of trust was also executed by the club members as settlors [people who put assets into a trust], naming the five members of the club as trustees and specifying that the trustees held the trust property upon the following trusts.

  The document then went on to list the use to which the building was to be put and the powers available to the trustees in furtherance of this use.

  It follows from this that the five legal trustees are the legal owners of the premises but specifically for the benefit of the Fianna Fáil party in Drumcondra electoral constituency with the trustees having the discretion to apply the trust property for the ultimate benefit of the Fianna Fáil party itself.