TRIBUNAL REMIT:JUDGE ALAN Mahon has ruled that the Mahon tribunal's inquiry into the funding of St Luke's, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern's constituency office, is within its remit.
The chairman of the tribunal was responding to a submission by Jim O'Callaghan BL, counsel for former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson.
Mr O'Callaghan said if the tribunal continued with its line of inquiry, the Quarryvale module would become the Dublin Central Bertie Ahern module.
"There is nothing of relevance in this line of inquiry," he said.
He said there was no connection between the purchase of St Luke's and the allegations made by the Luton-based developer of Quarryvale, Tom Gilmartin. Mr Gilmartin had said he was told by Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan that he had given £80,000 to Mr Ahern in connection with Quarryvale.
Jim O'Callaghan said counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, wanted to carry out an audit of Dublin Central constituency, which was not required.
Mr O'Neill said he was questioning Mr Richardson because he fundraised for Fianna Fáil and for Mr Ahern personally. He was also a trustee of St Luke's, and Mr Ahern had been a beneficiary of that property and a tenant there between 1992 and 1994.
He said it was only by identifying the accounts of Mr Ahern that one could establish what money came into the accounts and if this was related to Owen O'Callaghan.
Mr O'Neill said it was unfortunate the tribunal had to examine Mr Ahern's accounts so closely, but it was because he kept no records and others seemed to "suffer from the same infirmity".
Judge Mahon said the focus of the tribunal, in so far as the financial affairs of Mr Ahern were concerned, was to establish whether or not substantial sums were paid by or on behalf of Mr O'Callaghan to or for the benefit of Mr Ahern.
"The tribunal is satisfied that this aspect of the tribunal's inquiries is clearly within its terms of reference," he said.
He said the inquiries into Mr Ahern's finances were in the context of "a very significant deficit of documentation relating to very substantial movements of cash, including foreign exchange, with the consequence that the inquiries are cumbersome." The tribunal was not interested at this stage in identifying the individuals who contributed to the purchase of St Luke's "other than for the purposes of assisting in establishing the purpose or operation of accounts that remained in operation beyond late 1988/early 1989, including the accounts operated as trust accounts or so-called trust accounts".
He said the questioning of Mr Richardson on the St Luke's purchase should be designed to establish if a trust was created and whether the trust or any of its members went on to operate the accounts under scrutiny.
