Transactions:The Mahon tribunal is investigating transactions totalling £176,337.46 linked to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC yesterday itemised a number of transactions which total this figure, according to calculations by The Irish Times.
Mr O'Neill said Mr Ahern has told the tribunal that some of the transactions involve the same money being lodged, withdrawn and relodged.
When that is taken into account, then the total amount involved comes to £126,111.39, according to calculations by The Irish Times.
The period involved is December 1993 to December 1995.
The tribunal is inquiring into Mr Ahern's finances in the context of an allegation made by businessman Tom Gilmartin that Mr Ahern received money from property developer Owen O'Callaghan.
Mr Gilmartin has alleged he was told by Mr O'Callaghan that Mr Ahern was given £50,000 in 1989 and £30,000 at an unspecified date.
The payments are being investigated in the context of the development of the Liffey Valley Centre in Quarryvale, Dublin, in the early 1990s.
Both Mr Ahern and Mr O'Callaghan have strongly rejected Mr Gilmartin's allegations.
The Quarryvale module opened with a lengthy two-day opening statement in November 2005, but was then adjourned due to a legal challenge.
It was deferred on April 30th last because the general election had been called.
When it resumed yesterday, the opening statement read out was an addition to the 2005 opening statement and dealt soley with Mr Ahern's finances.
Mr O'Neill said no one should draw conclusions from the opening statement until all of the evidence had been heard.
He said he had gone into so much detail concerning Mr Ahern's finances because of the "volume and complexity of the material which is deemed relevant to these transactions which are under scrutiny".
Mr O'Neill said information provided by Mr Ahern indicated he had not kept a personal bank account from the time of his separation in 1987 to the conclusion of his separation proceedings in December 1993.
"This period encompassed the entire of the period in which the alleged payments were said to have been made by Mr Owen O'Callaghan. Mr Ahern says that during this period from 1987 to 1993 he saved, approximately, £50,000 which he kept in cash in his safes at his ministerial office and in his constituency office at St Luke's, Drumcondra."
Mr Ahern has told the tribunal it was his practice to "cash his salary cheques and meet his expenditure in cash".
Mr O'Neill said Mr Ahern's former partner, Celia Larkin, has told the tribunal Mr Ahern "preferred to deal in cash".
In December 1994, £50,000 belonging to Mr Ahern was lodged by Ms Larkin to an account in her name.
A month later the money was withdrawn in cash and returned to Mr Ahern, who kept it in a safe. Some of it was converted into sterling.
Much of the money was relodged to accounts in AIB, O'Connell Street, Dublin, in June, July and December 1995, the tribunal has been told.
