Dollars To Donuts

Bertie Ahern's money problems just won't go away. After taking a break for the summer, they've come back, as questionable as ever.

Over ten years ago, Mr. Ahern was in receipt of cash and his special friend Celia Larkin was moving money and then there was Michael Wall who had a house and money and somehow Mr. Ahern ended up with all of it. Conveniently enough, it would turn out, as he was about to become the taoiseach and he was in need of a house. He was in need of money because he was also separating from his wife and she was not about to go away without a penny to her name.

The Mahon tribunal is scheduled to resume where they left off, on a cliff-hanger of an ending. There were questions being asked of a particular lodgement which involved exchanging pounds sterling for Irish pounds and a representative of Anglo-Irish Bank suggested that the amount of cash worked out to $45,000 U.S. dollars precisely. Could it have been 30,000 pounds sterling, the bank representative was asked. Could have been, she said, and so we were left wondering what might come next in this thrilling serial.

Four large chunks of cash were deposited in a Drumcondra bank, Mr. Ahern has an explanation for the sources of all that loot, and the Mahon Tribunal is trying to figure out if he's telling the truth or not. No one is saying it out loud, but the tribunal is wondering if Mr. Ahern was accepting bribes in his official capacity as Finance Minister. Did he break the law? Or was he merely trying to hide assets from a soon-to-be ex-wife?

Building a case on faded memories and incomplete bank records and mathematical gymnastics is no easy task. It certainly is not a task that will be accomplished in short order.