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WORLD / Europe
I have done no wrong, Irish PM tells inquiry
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-14 06:04
DUBLIN - Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told an anti-corruption
tribunal on Thursday he did nothing wrong in accepting tens of thousands
of pounds in the early 1990s when he was finance minister and deputy
premier.
Ahern rejected allegations he acted improperly by accepting loans worth
about 50,000 euros ($70,000) from friends and businessmen and a briefcase
containing 30,000 pounds ($61,000) in cash from the owner of his rented
Dublin home.
"I have done no wrong and have wronged no one," he said on the first of
two days of public testimony at Dublin Castle.
Details of the payments were leaked ahead of a general election in May
but Ahern won an historic third consecutive term as Taoiseach (prime
minister).
Ahern is testifying before the Mahon Tribunal set up in 1997 to
investigate planning decisions in the 1980s and 1990s when builders made
vast profits on land re-zoned as commercial.
The inquiry began looking into Ahern's finances following allegations he
accepted money from developer Owen O'Callaghan.
"I never got a glass of water from Mr. O'Callaghan, never mind money,"
Ahern said on Thursday.
During its investigation, the tribunal uncovered details of other
payments which Ahern has acknowledged receiving, however.
Last year, Ahern admitted poor judgement for accepting loans in 1993 and
an 8,000-pound ($16,000) speaking fee but denied taking bribes and fended
off calls for his resignation.
Ahern's then partner Celia Larkin testified on Wednesday that they spent
30,000 pounds he received in 1994 from businessman Micheal Wall on a
conservatory for a house Ahern was renting from Wall and on
property-buyer's tax owed by Wall.
Ahern, who did not have a bank account during the 1990s, has said his
finances were complex but not improper during a period of "great personal
turmoil" after the breakdown of his marriage.
The probe is one of several set up to investigate corruption under
three-times premier and Ahern mentor Charles Haughey.
In 2003 Haughey paid taxes and penalties on over 10 million euros ($14
million) he received in office and used to fund a lavish lifestyle,
including an 18th century mansion and yacht, that contrasted sharply with
Ahern's man-of-the-people image.
Ahern, in power for a decade and dubbed the "Teflon Taoiseach" for his
ability to avoid the scandal that dogged Haughey, has said his current
term will be his last.
Opposition leader Enda Kenny has said the hearings are Ahern's last
chance to throw light on a money trail "littered with confusion" and deal
with the perception Ahern lives in a world where money is "flying around
in bags and hotel rooms."
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