Ahern Secretary In Tears And Under Pressure At Tribunal

A former secretary of the Taoiseach in his St Luke's constituency office in Drumcondra is to resume testimony at the Mahon Tribunal today.

Bertie Ahern's close aide, Grainne Carruth, was reduced to tears on Wednesday after being faced with “incontrovertible” evidence.

Ms Carruth, who worked as a trusted secretary under Mr Ahern since the late eighties, fell under intense pressure by Senior Counsel, Des O'Neill, over questions relating to a series of lodgements she made.

Ms Carruth said she “can’t recollect” a series of lodgements of sums totalling stg£15,000 in 1994.

Ms Carruth, who was on a salary of IR£66 per week at the time, said she could not remember making any of the huge sterling transactions.

Des O'Neill carefully took her through several transactions. One on March 9 1994 when stg£4,000 was purchased for IR£4,119, followed by two separate sterling purchases of stg£1,000 for IR£1,028.40.

These were immediately followed by three lodgments in Irish pounds; one of IR£4,119.99, to Bertie's bank account, and two of IR£1,028.40, to the accounts of his daughters.

Ms Carruth insisted: "I have no recollections of any dealings with sterling whatsoever.”

She then conceded that her name was on the documentation.

Judge Mary Fahety then pointed it was illogical for the sterling to Irish pound transactions to be carried out by anyone else.

Breaking down, Mr Ahern’s aide then accepted that some of the statements in her previous evidence were "incorrect", but still denied having any recollection of the transactions.

Mr Des O'Neill then further pointed out that she could hardly have forgotten as she was dealing with "huge sums of money" more than stg£15,500 lodged over an eight-month period - and they would have been huge sums to Bertie's secretary working for IR£66 per week.

Ms Carruth was then told by the Judge to carefully consider her evidence, and was been recalled to give further evidence today.

(DW)