Mahon tribunal: Former Irish PM lied about £175k paid to him in secret

FORMER Irish premier Bertie Ahern received at least €209,779 (£175,000) in secret payments while in office and repeatedly lied about this under oath, an investigation has ruled.

Three judges, led by Justice Alan Mahon, stopped short of finding Mr Ahern guilty of corruption, as they found no evidence he gave favours to cash donors when finance minister in the 1990s.

Two other former MPs in Mr Ahern’s Fianna Fail party, including former minister and European Union commissioner Padraig Flynn, were found guilty of corrupt acts by soliciting payments from property developers.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny referred the 3,211-page report to state prosecutors, the police, tax authorities and the Standards in Public Office Commission. The former members of the Irish Dail could now face charges for corruption, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.

Credible anti-bribery laws only came into force in Ireland in 1996. Previously tax evasion was the only readily proven offence.

No Irish politician has been convicted of corruption from the 15-year Mahon probe into the bribery culture at the heart of Irish property development. One planner was convicted.

Mr Ahern, whose implausible testimony in 2007 stunned the nation, denied any wrongdoing but resigned in 2008 after 11 years in power. His accountant and friend, Des Peelo, conceded his testimony had been hard to swallow, but said the judges couldn’t prove he was lying. “The fact that something is bizarre does not make it untrue. Some aspects of his finances were bizarre,” Mr Peelo said.

Mr Ahern’s former special adviser in government, Gerry Howlin, described the findings as “far worse than anything I expected or believed possible”.

Several MPs in Fianna Fail called on leader Micheál Martin to expel Mr Ahern from the party, which was booted out of power last year in a historic defeat in reaction to an EU/IMF bailout. Mr Ahern, 60, did not seek re-election.

“Much of the explanation provided by Mr Ahern as to the source of the substantial funds identified and inquired into in the course of the tribunal’s public hearings was deemed untrue,” the judges found.

During 15 days of testimony in 2007, Mr Ahern admitted keeping money in safes at his office and home from 1992 to 1994; failing to keep a personal bank account during much of the time under investigation; and paying no tax until investigators uncovered its existence.

He testified that cash payments he received while in Britain were all unsolicited gifts, while identical payments he received in Ireland were loans. Overseas gifts and domestic loans were not taxable at the time. He made no repayments on the 1993 “loans” until they were discovered in 2007. He later negotiated a tax settlement.

The judges dismissed his explanations for 1990s’ cash payments in punts, pounds and dollars deposited into accounts in the name of then-girlfriend, Celia Larkin, and his two daughters. He claimed to have won much of the money betting on horses.