Allied Irish Bank has no record up to March 2007 of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern inquiring whether any transactions he carried out involved foreign exchange, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Ahern had told the tribunal in previous evidence that he had contacted the bank and tried to ascertain whether transactions he carried out involved sterling.
Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, said yesterday that the bank had no written record of any communication in relation to foreign transactions at the bank from the time Mr Ahern was ordered to discover his documents, in October 2004, up to March 2007, even though Mr Ahern believed that at least one transaction had involved sterling.
Mr Ahern said he never wrote to the bank, but had queried them on the phone in relation to some "odd amounts", particularly in relation to 1995 transactions.
"I'd say I was on to AIB about 20 times," Mr Ahern said.
"I certainly raised it early on," he added.
Mr O'Neill queried why he did not ask his solicitor to write to the bank when he found it difficult to get information.
Mr Ahern said the bank staff had tried to find records for him, but because the O'Connell Street branch had merged with two other branches, records were difficult to track down.
The tribunal heard that bank official Jim McNamara, who had chiefly dealt with Mr Ahern's queries at AIB, told the tribunal that he had no recollection of Mr Ahern asking about foreign transactions up until March 2007.
In that month he had received a call from Mr Ahern's assistant, who asked whether there were any foreign transaction records in relation to three sums, the tribunal was told.
Mr Ahern said he did not understand and could not accept how the bank could say he had made no queries in relation to foreign lodgements.
Mr Ahern said not all of his calls would have been written down.
"I don't think that was the kind of relationship I had with them," he said.
Mr O'Neill also pointed out that Mr Ahern did not discover any documents recording sterling transactions in his affidavit.
He said that even if he did not have any documents, such as receipts from sterling transactions, he should have told the tribunal that he did have them in his possession at some stage.
"I do not believe that I left anything out that was in my knowledge or in my memory," Mr Ahern said.
He said his main concern was answering the allegations against him.
Counsel for Mr Ahern, Conor Maguire SC, interrupted, saying that the line of questioning implied that there was an allegation of non-compliance with his order of discovery.
However, tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said no such allegation was being made and the questions were permissible.
"I'm not saying it will ever happen, but at some stage as with any witness, there may be an allegation that somebody didn't comply," he said.
