HOME IMPROVEMENTS:MR AHERN spent almost £34,000 on furnishing a house he was about to rent and without having any agreement covering the return of this expenditure, the tribunal heard.
Mr Ahern said he withdrew £50,000 from his accounts to provide for expenditure on furnishings for the house and gave this money to his then partner Celia Larkin. He said he did not see the inside of the house until after it had been renovated.
The house on Beresford Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin, was bought for £138,000 by Manchester-based businessman Micheál Wall in early 1995. Mr Wall put up money to pay for a new conservatory, Mr Ahern told Henry Murphy SC, for the tribunal.
Ms Larkin placed Mr Wall's and Mr Ahern's money into two separate accounts which she opened in her name. Mr Wall's money was used to pay for work on the conservatory, a stamp duty bill, and for expenditure of £2,000 in Brown Thomas. A remaining amount of £9,684.71 was then transferred by Ms Larkin into a new account in June 1995.
Ms Larkin also lodged £11,743.74 into this account, which had come from Mr Ahern and which included £10,000 in sterling cash. In July a further £9,655 was lodged to the account, cash which Mr Ahern said came from his safe.
Mr Ahern said Mr Wall paid the Brown Thomas bill but he, Mr Ahern, paid for work on the attic and for painting work. "Celia was getting on with it. The two of us were spectators and we just let her get on with it," he said.
Mr Murphy said there was a large difference between the £50,000 Mr Ahern said he withdrew in cash in January 1995 so it could be used on doing up the house, and the actual amount he spent on the house - £34,000. Judge Mary Faherty asked if there was any agreement with Mr Wall concerning how Mr Ahern could be recompensed if he ceased to be a tenant. "There was no agreement," Mr Ahern said.
Mr Ahern also said there was a ministerial campaign against him in 1992 to prevent him becoming the leader of the Fianna Fáil party. At the time, Mr Ahern was living in an apartment above his constituency office St Luke's, in Drumcondra.
He said he was not interested in becoming leader then, but opponents thought he might be. They said "you couldn't elect a taoiseach that didn't have a house and nobody knew where he lived".
Mr Ahern also told the tribunal that he expected to become taoiseach in late 1994, but his chances were "blown out of the water" when Geraldine Kennedy - now Irish Timeseditor - wrote a "lovely article" and "Dick Spring ran".
Mr Ahern was referring to the decision by former tánaiste and Labour Party leader Dick Spring to pull out of supporting Fianna Fáil in government.
Mr Ahern finished his evidence on his personal finances yesterday. He may return to the witness box in July to be asked about matters to do with developer Owen O'Callaghan, and the Quarryvale development.
