The numbers don't add up, but according to Bertie Ahern's testimony, the numbers may not be accurate. Evidence given at the Mahon Tribunal investigating some money movements made by the taoiseach are becoming muddled, boiled up into a stew of varying numbers and imprecise exchange rates.
When Mr. Ahern said that he had obtained 16,500 pounds sterling from friends who had come to his aid when he was settling things with Miriam Ahern, representatives from Anglo-Irish Bank said that over 24,000 Irish punts were lodged in the account. It could have been more than 16,500 sterling, it has now been suggested. And there might have been some Irish pounds in the mix, perhaps Mr. Ahern emptied his pockets at the bank and dropped the lot into his account.
After a speaking engagement in Manchester, Mr. Ahern received an honorarium of 8,000 pounds sterling but when he brought it to the bank he might have added some Irish money or he might have added some sterling notes that he had on hand. All in all, the reason that the amounts listed on bank records don't work out to what was said to have been exchanged was because the amounts exchanged were not precise values but estimates.
All this debate over numbers, but what is the point? Michael Wall bought a house for Mr. Ahern and paid for its tart-up, but has anyone sitting on the tribunal asked what was in it for Mr. Wall? What benefit did he derive from the Drumcondra residence? Are there political or financial favors that can be demonstrated? Or was it truly a case of a bunch of good ole boys helping one of their own get rid of the old battle axe so he could take up with his bit on the side?
Did no one think to ask Celia Larkin why she thought she was fixing up the house at the behest of Mr. Wall? She testified about lodging the cash, she talked about the conservatory that Mr. Wall paid to be added to the house, she described her actions from the position of 'life partner' (like a wife, only not married and with no legal standing) but she never did get to live in the place she had selected. Did she really think that an Irish politician was going to get divorced so they could marry? Did she expect an Irish politician to live openly with another woman while he was still legally married to someone else? Or was she being used as a name on a bank account so that Mrs. Ahern wouldn't find out about all the loose cash that was floating around?
If the Mahon Tribunal is trying to equate cash payments to Mr. Ahern in exchange for political favors, they have yet to link the taoiseach to bribery payments that were allegedly paid by developer Owen O'Callaghan, with the allegation made by competing developer Tom Gilmartin in a case of hearsay having its day in court.
How much more testimony will be needed to make a connection between Ahern and O'Callaghan? There must come another day of exchange rates and AIB employees accused of using the wrong exchange rate on unspecified mixtures of Irish notes and sterling and pages of binomial equations that suggest dozens of possible combinations. Another day of 'could have been' rather than the much needed smoking gun in the hand of the accused. Another day of Bertie Ahern being roasted while he dances around the flames.
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