Irish Sports
Welcome to Live View – Take the tour to learn more
Start Tour
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
22 Mar 12
12:34
Joined:
Date Joined:
05 Jan 10
Former taoiseach Ahern failed to tell the truth about money paid into his bank accounts in the early 1990s, according to the final report of the Mahon tribunal.
The tribunal this moring published its long-awaited findings after a 15-year investigation with a damning indictment of Mr Ahern’s 15 days of evidence about a labyrinthine money trail.
However it it stops short of making a finding of corruption against Mr Ahern.
The inquiry found the former taoiseach failed to truthfully account for tens of thousands of pounds which passed through his accounts.
“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 by the Tribunal to have been untrue,” the report concluded.
"Those findings of fact which are adverse to Mr Ahern and on occasion others clearly demonstrated that important aspects of Mr Ahern's evidence was rejected by the tribunal."
Mr Ahern failed to explain the true source of lodgements of IR£22,500 in December 1993 and £10,000 pounds sterling in June 1995 to his bank account, according to the report.
Tribunal head Judge Alan Mahon has rejected Mr Ahern's evidence that he was saving sterling to put towards the purchase of an investment property in Manchester.
Judge Mahon reported that he could not rule out or establish any basis in the allegations that Mr Ahern had been paid off by a developer.
Tom Gilmartin, a property developer, alleged another developer, Owen O’Callaghan from Cork, had boasted about paying Mr Ahern two sums – IR£50,000 in 1989 and IR£30,000 in 1992 when he was finance minister.
“Regrettably, the Tribunal’s inquiries were rendered inconclusive,” Judge Mahon said.
“Because the tribunal has been unable to identify the true sources of the funds in question, it could not therefore determine whether or not the payment to Mr Ahern of all or any of the fund in question were in fact made by or initiated or arranged directly or indirectly by Mr O’Callaghan or by any other identifiable third party or parties.”
The report concludes that it cannot substantiate any allegations of corruption against Mr Ahern.
The sums of money Mr Ahern was dealing with totalled about €165,000 in various cash sums.
On one amount the tribunal found: “Because the tribunal was not provided with a truthful account as to the source of the said lodgement of IR£22,500 to Mr Ahern’s bank account on 30 December 1993, it was unable to determine the original source of such funds.”
The report found that Mr Ahern and his associate Tim Collins failed to truthfully account for a sum of IR£50,000 lodged into the so called 'B/T account' between 1992 and 1994.
The former taoiseach gave evidence on 15 days between 2006 and 2008 at public hearings in Dublin Castle. This was to be his downfall.
After revealing a bizarre money trail of whip-arounds from friends, unsolicited payment for a Manchester dinner, wins on the horses, cash savings for property investments, bags of cash and a lack of bank accounts, Mr Ahern‘s evidence was turned on its head by his former secretary, Grainne Carruth.
The taoiseach at the time had always denied dealing in foreign currencies but he was forced to resign amid a storm of controversy after Ms Carruth revealed she had lodged sterling sums into accounts on his behalf.
In wider investigations linked to planning scandals and developers, former EU Commissioner Padraig Flynn was branded corrupt.
The inquiry found he wrongfully and corruptly sought money from the developer Mr Gilmartin for the benefit of his party.
The tribunal ruled: “Mr Flynn, having wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from Mr Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party, and having been paid IR£50,000 by Mr Gilmartin for that purpose, proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.”
The report has also found that the late Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor "corruptly requested a payment of IR£100,000" for himself and former Dublin City and County Assistant Manager George Redmond.
The 3,270-page final report of the Planning and Payments Tribunal has been published online this morning.
The inquiry sat in public for more than 900 days over 11 years, hearing from 400 witnesses and examining 130,000 pages of documents.
READ THE FINAL MAHON REPORT HERE http://bit.ly/GLadJG
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mahon-report-ahern-evidence-about-money-untrue-544466.html#ixzz1pqPh5SaB
The tribunal this moring published its long-awaited findings after a 15-year investigation with a damning indictment of Mr Ahern’s 15 days of evidence about a labyrinthine money trail.
However it it stops short of making a finding of corruption against Mr Ahern.
The inquiry found the former taoiseach failed to truthfully account for tens of thousands of pounds which passed through his accounts.
“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 by the Tribunal to have been untrue,” the report concluded.
"Those findings of fact which are adverse to Mr Ahern and on occasion others clearly demonstrated that important aspects of Mr Ahern's evidence was rejected by the tribunal."
Mr Ahern failed to explain the true source of lodgements of IR£22,500 in December 1993 and £10,000 pounds sterling in June 1995 to his bank account, according to the report.
Tribunal head Judge Alan Mahon has rejected Mr Ahern's evidence that he was saving sterling to put towards the purchase of an investment property in Manchester.
Judge Mahon reported that he could not rule out or establish any basis in the allegations that Mr Ahern had been paid off by a developer.
Tom Gilmartin, a property developer, alleged another developer, Owen O’Callaghan from Cork, had boasted about paying Mr Ahern two sums – IR£50,000 in 1989 and IR£30,000 in 1992 when he was finance minister.
“Regrettably, the Tribunal’s inquiries were rendered inconclusive,” Judge Mahon said.
“Because the tribunal has been unable to identify the true sources of the funds in question, it could not therefore determine whether or not the payment to Mr Ahern of all or any of the fund in question were in fact made by or initiated or arranged directly or indirectly by Mr O’Callaghan or by any other identifiable third party or parties.”
The report concludes that it cannot substantiate any allegations of corruption against Mr Ahern.
The sums of money Mr Ahern was dealing with totalled about €165,000 in various cash sums.
On one amount the tribunal found: “Because the tribunal was not provided with a truthful account as to the source of the said lodgement of IR£22,500 to Mr Ahern’s bank account on 30 December 1993, it was unable to determine the original source of such funds.”
The report found that Mr Ahern and his associate Tim Collins failed to truthfully account for a sum of IR£50,000 lodged into the so called 'B/T account' between 1992 and 1994.
The former taoiseach gave evidence on 15 days between 2006 and 2008 at public hearings in Dublin Castle. This was to be his downfall.
After revealing a bizarre money trail of whip-arounds from friends, unsolicited payment for a Manchester dinner, wins on the horses, cash savings for property investments, bags of cash and a lack of bank accounts, Mr Ahern‘s evidence was turned on its head by his former secretary, Grainne Carruth.
The taoiseach at the time had always denied dealing in foreign currencies but he was forced to resign amid a storm of controversy after Ms Carruth revealed she had lodged sterling sums into accounts on his behalf.
In wider investigations linked to planning scandals and developers, former EU Commissioner Padraig Flynn was branded corrupt.
The inquiry found he wrongfully and corruptly sought money from the developer Mr Gilmartin for the benefit of his party.
The tribunal ruled: “Mr Flynn, having wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from Mr Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party, and having been paid IR£50,000 by Mr Gilmartin for that purpose, proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.”
The report has also found that the late Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor "corruptly requested a payment of IR£100,000" for himself and former Dublin City and County Assistant Manager George Redmond.
The 3,270-page final report of the Planning and Payments Tribunal has been published online this morning.
The inquiry sat in public for more than 900 days over 11 years, hearing from 400 witnesses and examining 130,000 pages of documents.
READ THE FINAL MAHON REPORT HERE http://bit.ly/GLadJG
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mahon-report-ahern-evidence-about-money-untrue-544466.html#ixzz1pqPh5SaB
Show More
Spivs were running the country . Feel sorry for the honest genuine politicians with Ireland at heart who got tarred with the same brush . Not sure how many of them there were though .
If it wasn't for Lehman Brothers ("twas them that did for us"), Bertrand would, very likely, now be President.
What the point if this if they can't reach a conclusion if he was corrupt??, typical.
Pee in a spot of bother going by the final report.
The tribunal ruled: “Mr Flynn, having wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from Mr Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party, and having been paid IR£50,000 by Mr Gilmartin for that purpose, proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.”
The tribunal ruled: “Mr Flynn, having wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from Mr Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party, and having been paid IR£50,000 by Mr Gilmartin for that purpose, proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.”
They cannot connect the monies received with a particular favour which they would need to do to reach the corrupt conclusion.
The greatest bit of corruption done was when a certain finance minister tipped off a wealthy horse owner about the devaluation of the punt a couple of days in advance.
The greatest bit of corruption done was when a certain finance minister tipped off a wealthy horse owner about the devaluation of the punt a couple of days in advance.
Shane Coleman irishindependent.ie
: The Mahon Tribunal 1997 – 2012
Thursday March 22 2012
From Ray Burke to Bertie Ahern, Shane Coleman gives the backstory on how the tribunal unfolded.
The background – how the tribunal started
IT began with an advert in a national newspaper offering a £10,000 reward for “information leading to the conviction on indictment of a person or persons for offences relating to land rezoning in the Republic of Ireland”.
Seventeen years later – with the publication of the Planning Tribunal’s final report - it seems we might now finally be able to write the epilogue on an extraordinarily grubby tale of corruption and brown paper envelopes.
There had long been suspicions that abuse of the planning system in Ireland was endemic and there were persistent rumours of money being paid for votes on rezoning motions at city and county councils.
But a garda probe in the 1970s, following stunning revelations in the Sunday Independent about the improper rezoning activities of councillor and TD Ray Burke, came to nothing.
It said everything that while Burke’s career prospered to the point where he regularly featured in cabinets in the 1980s and 1990s, Joe MacAnthony, the investigative journalist who wrote the Sunday Independent exclusive, was later forced to emigrate to Canada.
A second garda investigation into planning in 1989 also came to nothing as the investigating team hit a brick wall.
In the same year that inquiry was launched, Ray Burke received payments of nearly three times his ministerial salary from various developers.
But that would only come out much later and, although there was no shortage of rumours about his activities, he and others engaging in the same practice seemed untouchable.
1993 brought revelations in the media detailing how unnamed developers had handed over large sums of cash for votes in Dublin and yet another fruitless garda investigation hamstrung by the lack of access to bank accounts.
The Environment Minister of the day Michael Smith spoke almost despairingly of how “zoning has become a debased currency” in Dublin.
It seemed as if nothing could stop the rot. But then, two years later, environmental activists Michael Smith (no relation to the minister) and Colm MacEochaidh placed their newspaper advert, offering the £10,000 reward, and everything changed.
One of those who responded to the advert was a James Gogarty, an executive with JMSE who had fallen out bitterly with his employer over a pension.
Gogarty met Smith and MacEochaidh and told them that in 1989 Ray Burke, by then a cabinet minister, had got a huge sum of money from JMSE in relation to a planning matter.
Stories began to appear in the media in early 1996 about an unnamed senior Fianna Fail politician getting money for a planning favour.
The rumours continued to circulate about Ray Burke, but despite this Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by Bertie Ahern in 1997.
Under pressure, Burke said he had received £30,000 from JMSE as a totally unsolicited political contribution and that he had done nothing wrong.
But the stories in the media wouldn’t go away and Fianna Fail came under pressure from its new coalition partners, the PDs, to establish a tribunal to examine planning matters – a separate tribunal, under Judge Brian McCracken, had already been set up to examine payments by Dunnes Stores and which eventually led to the establishment of the Moriarty Tribunal.
Within weeks, Burke had resigned from cabinet and the Dail. Exactly a month later on 4 November, 1997, the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, was established under the chairmanship of High Court Judge Feargus Flood.
Its broad terms of reference effectively gave it carte blanche to investigate anything resembling corruption that could be tied to the planning process.
The halcyon early days
In its early period, crowds flocked to Dublin Castle to hear its main witness James Gogarty, with the octogenarian becoming something of a public hero for spilling the beans.
More importantly, the tribunal also used its considerable powers to follow the money trail, which led to Burke’s offshore accounts and to builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan, who ironically – along with Burke - featured in Joe McAnthony’s exclusive Sunday Independent story in 1974.
The trawl also exposed the former Fianna Fail government press secretary Frank Dunlop, who had run a highly successful PR and lobbying firm.
Asked to explain a hidden account that contained up to £250,000 – and which showed withdrawals coinciding with major rezoning votes – Dunlop admitted he had been involved in extensive bribery of councillors in the formulation of the Dublin county development plan in the early 1990s.
He said he was retained by landowners in a professional capacity in relation to 18 different amendments to the plan, proposing rezoning. He kept a large stash of cash with which to bribe councillors for their votes – making a distinction between bribes (paid in cash) and so-called legitimate political donations (paid by cheque).
“It wasn’t rocket science,” Dunlop told the tribunal in 2005. “Some [councillors] proffered their support for signing motions [to rezone] in return for cash. The motion was the ticket to the ball. If you weren’t at the ball, you couldn’t dance”.
The money that could be made from rezoning was staggering.
In one of the best known examples investigated by the Tribunal, Dunlop was retained to lobby for a plan to rezone 107 acres in Carrickmines in South County Dublin. While just 17 acres were rezoned, this increased the value of the lands from £6.3m to £48m. Dunlop’s cut was £25,000.
Dunlop said the system of bribes was in place before he entered the business. His one time friend Liam Lawlor, a long time Fianna Fail TD, informed him early on that he would have to ‘pay to play’.
All of the councillors who were named by Dunlop as being in receipt of bribes have denied it.
The fall-out
Dunlop was jailed for 18 months in 2009 after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
And he was not the only person imprisoned arising out of the Tribunal’s investigations. Ray Burke was jailed for six months for tax evasion.
Liam Lawlor, who was killed in a car crash in 2005, was imprisoned three times by the High Court for contempt over his failure to co-operate with the inquiry.
The former Dublin City and County Manager George Redmond was also jailed after being convicted of corruption, but this conviction was overturned on appeal.
Arising from the tribunal’s work, a company owned by builders Michael and Tom Bailey, Bovale, made a settlement of €22m with the Revenue Commissioners.
The Tribunal probably reached the peak of its powers in September 2002 when it released its second and third interim reports.
The second report made a series of damning findings about Burke, stating that he had received a number of corrupt payments from builders; was in the pay of builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan through most of his political life and that he had received a corrupt payment of £35,000 from Oliver Barry in relation to Century Radio, which had pioneered commercial radio in the country.
In all 18 witnesses were implicated in its findings. The report, available at just €1, became a best seller with the people queuing up to buy copies outside the government publications office.
The 74-year old Flood became something of a celebrity.
After the Flood
But it wasn’t long before public interest began to wane. There seemed no end in sight to its investigations and there was increased focused on the high cost of the tribunal, not least the enormous daily brief fees paid to tribunal lawyers.
In September 2003, Flood retired, with judge Alan Mahon, along with Mary Faherty and Gerard Keys taking over as a three person tribunal.
By this point, the Mahon Tribunal – as it had become known – was largely investigating bribes of £1,000-5,000 dating from the early 1990s – important work but hardly headline grabbing.
In December, 2005, amid growing criticism of the cost and longevity of the tribunal, the Oireachtas amended its terms of reference.
The tribunal had to compile a list of enquiries it intended to undertake and that was to be that – the open-ended investigation into planning corruption was effectively dropped.
The Big Witness
But by this point another witness, who was to prove crucial to the planning tribunal, was already in the pipieline.
Tom Gilmartin was a Sligo-born emigrant, who had done well in the UK but had subsequently been frustrated in his efforts to develop sites in Dublin city centre and in Quarryvale – now known as the Liffey Valley shopping centre - on the west side of the capital in the late 1980s.
He made a series of allegations against a wide range of politicians and businesspeople, including Liam Lawlor and George Redmond.
Some of those allegations were shown to be fanciful but others were reinforced by testimony from others and financial records.
It emerged that Gilmartin had given £50,000 to the then Environment Minister Padraig Flynn in response to being told a major contribution to Fianna Fail would smooth the passage of his plans.
Gilmartin also alleged that Joe Burke had asked him for £500,000 on behalf of Bertie Ahern – which was vehemently denied as “outrageous” by both Ahern and Burke.
Ahern got a rough ride at the hands of Gilmartin’s counsel when he gave evidence at the tribunal in April 2004, particularly over his failure to recollect a meeting Gilmartin had claimed to have had with most of the Fianna Fail cabinet in early 1989.
But while he had failed to dispel the notion that he had extensive contact with Gilmartin around that time the public quickly moved on. Nobody seemed interested.
But the tribunal was. It hadn’t finished with Ahern.
Gilmartin had made a further allegation that Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan – who took over the Quarryvale project when Gilmartin opted out and returned to the UK - had told him around 1992 that he had paid Ahern sums of £50,000 and £30,000.
The former payment to ensure the rezoning would be forthcoming for Quarryvale; the latter for the then Minister for Finance’s role in blocking favourable tax designation on a rival retail development at nearby Blanchardstown.
Ahern and O’Callaghan always strongly denied the allegations and no proof was uncovered other than Gilmartin’s allegations. The public was unaware of the allegation for some time because the tribunal’s initial investigations into the matter were in private. These investigations, which sought and got access to Ahern’s bank records, would prove devastating for Ahern.
The dig-outs
The sensational story that the tribunal was investigating a number of payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, dating back to late 1993, broke in September, 2006.
Ahern survived the intial storm, helped by a tearful interview on RTE news and his explanation that the money had come from two dig-outs from friends and a whip-around from an event he had attended in Manchester.
The public were inclined to give Ahern – whose lifestyle had been modest and understated - the benefit of the doubt and he led Fianna Fail to a third successive general election victory the following May.
However, as the tribunals public investigation continued, serious questions began to emerge about Ahern’s personal finances.
There was no evidence linking Ahern to planning controversies or to O’Callaghan, but his bizarre explanations for how he received over £200,000 ultimately undermined his position as Taoiseach to the point where he had to resign from the office in April 2008.
There were many difficult days for Ahern during that 07/08 period but the tipping points were clearly the evidence that his then partner Celia Larkin had been loaned money from what was claimed to be a Fianna Fail account to buy a house and the ordeal endured in the witness box by his secretary Grainne Carruth.
Carruth (and Ahern) had told the tribunal that any lodgements she had made to Ahern’s account in the Irish Permanent being examined by the tribunal were his salary cheques.
But details of lodgements obtained by the tribunal showed that she had made a number of sterling lodgements. Ahern would later claim that he had won some of the money on the horses, but the incredulity that greeted this was muted by the fact that by then he had already resigned as Taoiseach.
The legacy
While the findings in relation to Ahern will no doubt dominate the coming days, they only represent a small element of what the Planning Tribunal was about.
Indeed there is an argument that Ahern’s personal finances have little to do with the tribunal’s central remit to explore if the planning process was corrupted.
But at what cost?
The Tribunal has by no means without its flaws. The ludicrous cost – expected to run to several hundreds of millions of euro - and the 14 and a half years duration surely mean it’s like will never be seen again.
A damning verdict by the Supreme Court in 2010 also raised serious question marks about the modus operandi of the tribunal, with the court expressing ‘serious concerns’ about how it had conducted itself with Gogarty.
And it remains to be seen whether its investigations have really once and for all changed planning and how business and politics interact.
Many will remain sceptical on that one.
Shane Coleman is Political Editor of Newstalk
: The Mahon Tribunal 1997 – 2012
Thursday March 22 2012
From Ray Burke to Bertie Ahern, Shane Coleman gives the backstory on how the tribunal unfolded.
The background – how the tribunal started
IT began with an advert in a national newspaper offering a £10,000 reward for “information leading to the conviction on indictment of a person or persons for offences relating to land rezoning in the Republic of Ireland”.
Seventeen years later – with the publication of the Planning Tribunal’s final report - it seems we might now finally be able to write the epilogue on an extraordinarily grubby tale of corruption and brown paper envelopes.
There had long been suspicions that abuse of the planning system in Ireland was endemic and there were persistent rumours of money being paid for votes on rezoning motions at city and county councils.
But a garda probe in the 1970s, following stunning revelations in the Sunday Independent about the improper rezoning activities of councillor and TD Ray Burke, came to nothing.
It said everything that while Burke’s career prospered to the point where he regularly featured in cabinets in the 1980s and 1990s, Joe MacAnthony, the investigative journalist who wrote the Sunday Independent exclusive, was later forced to emigrate to Canada.
A second garda investigation into planning in 1989 also came to nothing as the investigating team hit a brick wall.
In the same year that inquiry was launched, Ray Burke received payments of nearly three times his ministerial salary from various developers.
But that would only come out much later and, although there was no shortage of rumours about his activities, he and others engaging in the same practice seemed untouchable.
1993 brought revelations in the media detailing how unnamed developers had handed over large sums of cash for votes in Dublin and yet another fruitless garda investigation hamstrung by the lack of access to bank accounts.
The Environment Minister of the day Michael Smith spoke almost despairingly of how “zoning has become a debased currency” in Dublin.
It seemed as if nothing could stop the rot. But then, two years later, environmental activists Michael Smith (no relation to the minister) and Colm MacEochaidh placed their newspaper advert, offering the £10,000 reward, and everything changed.
One of those who responded to the advert was a James Gogarty, an executive with JMSE who had fallen out bitterly with his employer over a pension.
Gogarty met Smith and MacEochaidh and told them that in 1989 Ray Burke, by then a cabinet minister, had got a huge sum of money from JMSE in relation to a planning matter.
Stories began to appear in the media in early 1996 about an unnamed senior Fianna Fail politician getting money for a planning favour.
The rumours continued to circulate about Ray Burke, but despite this Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by Bertie Ahern in 1997.
Under pressure, Burke said he had received £30,000 from JMSE as a totally unsolicited political contribution and that he had done nothing wrong.
But the stories in the media wouldn’t go away and Fianna Fail came under pressure from its new coalition partners, the PDs, to establish a tribunal to examine planning matters – a separate tribunal, under Judge Brian McCracken, had already been set up to examine payments by Dunnes Stores and which eventually led to the establishment of the Moriarty Tribunal.
Within weeks, Burke had resigned from cabinet and the Dail. Exactly a month later on 4 November, 1997, the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, was established under the chairmanship of High Court Judge Feargus Flood.
Its broad terms of reference effectively gave it carte blanche to investigate anything resembling corruption that could be tied to the planning process.
The halcyon early days
In its early period, crowds flocked to Dublin Castle to hear its main witness James Gogarty, with the octogenarian becoming something of a public hero for spilling the beans.
More importantly, the tribunal also used its considerable powers to follow the money trail, which led to Burke’s offshore accounts and to builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan, who ironically – along with Burke - featured in Joe McAnthony’s exclusive Sunday Independent story in 1974.
The trawl also exposed the former Fianna Fail government press secretary Frank Dunlop, who had run a highly successful PR and lobbying firm.
Asked to explain a hidden account that contained up to £250,000 – and which showed withdrawals coinciding with major rezoning votes – Dunlop admitted he had been involved in extensive bribery of councillors in the formulation of the Dublin county development plan in the early 1990s.
He said he was retained by landowners in a professional capacity in relation to 18 different amendments to the plan, proposing rezoning. He kept a large stash of cash with which to bribe councillors for their votes – making a distinction between bribes (paid in cash) and so-called legitimate political donations (paid by cheque).
“It wasn’t rocket science,” Dunlop told the tribunal in 2005. “Some [councillors] proffered their support for signing motions [to rezone] in return for cash. The motion was the ticket to the ball. If you weren’t at the ball, you couldn’t dance”.
The money that could be made from rezoning was staggering.
In one of the best known examples investigated by the Tribunal, Dunlop was retained to lobby for a plan to rezone 107 acres in Carrickmines in South County Dublin. While just 17 acres were rezoned, this increased the value of the lands from £6.3m to £48m. Dunlop’s cut was £25,000.
Dunlop said the system of bribes was in place before he entered the business. His one time friend Liam Lawlor, a long time Fianna Fail TD, informed him early on that he would have to ‘pay to play’.
All of the councillors who were named by Dunlop as being in receipt of bribes have denied it.
The fall-out
Dunlop was jailed for 18 months in 2009 after pleading guilty to corruption charges.
And he was not the only person imprisoned arising out of the Tribunal’s investigations. Ray Burke was jailed for six months for tax evasion.
Liam Lawlor, who was killed in a car crash in 2005, was imprisoned three times by the High Court for contempt over his failure to co-operate with the inquiry.
The former Dublin City and County Manager George Redmond was also jailed after being convicted of corruption, but this conviction was overturned on appeal.
Arising from the tribunal’s work, a company owned by builders Michael and Tom Bailey, Bovale, made a settlement of €22m with the Revenue Commissioners.
The Tribunal probably reached the peak of its powers in September 2002 when it released its second and third interim reports.
The second report made a series of damning findings about Burke, stating that he had received a number of corrupt payments from builders; was in the pay of builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan through most of his political life and that he had received a corrupt payment of £35,000 from Oliver Barry in relation to Century Radio, which had pioneered commercial radio in the country.
In all 18 witnesses were implicated in its findings. The report, available at just €1, became a best seller with the people queuing up to buy copies outside the government publications office.
The 74-year old Flood became something of a celebrity.
After the Flood
But it wasn’t long before public interest began to wane. There seemed no end in sight to its investigations and there was increased focused on the high cost of the tribunal, not least the enormous daily brief fees paid to tribunal lawyers.
In September 2003, Flood retired, with judge Alan Mahon, along with Mary Faherty and Gerard Keys taking over as a three person tribunal.
By this point, the Mahon Tribunal – as it had become known – was largely investigating bribes of £1,000-5,000 dating from the early 1990s – important work but hardly headline grabbing.
In December, 2005, amid growing criticism of the cost and longevity of the tribunal, the Oireachtas amended its terms of reference.
The tribunal had to compile a list of enquiries it intended to undertake and that was to be that – the open-ended investigation into planning corruption was effectively dropped.
The Big Witness
But by this point another witness, who was to prove crucial to the planning tribunal, was already in the pipieline.
Tom Gilmartin was a Sligo-born emigrant, who had done well in the UK but had subsequently been frustrated in his efforts to develop sites in Dublin city centre and in Quarryvale – now known as the Liffey Valley shopping centre - on the west side of the capital in the late 1980s.
He made a series of allegations against a wide range of politicians and businesspeople, including Liam Lawlor and George Redmond.
Some of those allegations were shown to be fanciful but others were reinforced by testimony from others and financial records.
It emerged that Gilmartin had given £50,000 to the then Environment Minister Padraig Flynn in response to being told a major contribution to Fianna Fail would smooth the passage of his plans.
Gilmartin also alleged that Joe Burke had asked him for £500,000 on behalf of Bertie Ahern – which was vehemently denied as “outrageous” by both Ahern and Burke.
Ahern got a rough ride at the hands of Gilmartin’s counsel when he gave evidence at the tribunal in April 2004, particularly over his failure to recollect a meeting Gilmartin had claimed to have had with most of the Fianna Fail cabinet in early 1989.
But while he had failed to dispel the notion that he had extensive contact with Gilmartin around that time the public quickly moved on. Nobody seemed interested.
But the tribunal was. It hadn’t finished with Ahern.
Gilmartin had made a further allegation that Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan – who took over the Quarryvale project when Gilmartin opted out and returned to the UK - had told him around 1992 that he had paid Ahern sums of £50,000 and £30,000.
The former payment to ensure the rezoning would be forthcoming for Quarryvale; the latter for the then Minister for Finance’s role in blocking favourable tax designation on a rival retail development at nearby Blanchardstown.
Ahern and O’Callaghan always strongly denied the allegations and no proof was uncovered other than Gilmartin’s allegations. The public was unaware of the allegation for some time because the tribunal’s initial investigations into the matter were in private. These investigations, which sought and got access to Ahern’s bank records, would prove devastating for Ahern.
The dig-outs
The sensational story that the tribunal was investigating a number of payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, dating back to late 1993, broke in September, 2006.
Ahern survived the intial storm, helped by a tearful interview on RTE news and his explanation that the money had come from two dig-outs from friends and a whip-around from an event he had attended in Manchester.
The public were inclined to give Ahern – whose lifestyle had been modest and understated - the benefit of the doubt and he led Fianna Fail to a third successive general election victory the following May.
However, as the tribunals public investigation continued, serious questions began to emerge about Ahern’s personal finances.
There was no evidence linking Ahern to planning controversies or to O’Callaghan, but his bizarre explanations for how he received over £200,000 ultimately undermined his position as Taoiseach to the point where he had to resign from the office in April 2008.
There were many difficult days for Ahern during that 07/08 period but the tipping points were clearly the evidence that his then partner Celia Larkin had been loaned money from what was claimed to be a Fianna Fail account to buy a house and the ordeal endured in the witness box by his secretary Grainne Carruth.
Carruth (and Ahern) had told the tribunal that any lodgements she had made to Ahern’s account in the Irish Permanent being examined by the tribunal were his salary cheques.
But details of lodgements obtained by the tribunal showed that she had made a number of sterling lodgements. Ahern would later claim that he had won some of the money on the horses, but the incredulity that greeted this was muted by the fact that by then he had already resigned as Taoiseach.
The legacy
While the findings in relation to Ahern will no doubt dominate the coming days, they only represent a small element of what the Planning Tribunal was about.
Indeed there is an argument that Ahern’s personal finances have little to do with the tribunal’s central remit to explore if the planning process was corrupted.
But at what cost?
The Tribunal has by no means without its flaws. The ludicrous cost – expected to run to several hundreds of millions of euro - and the 14 and a half years duration surely mean it’s like will never be seen again.
A damning verdict by the Supreme Court in 2010 also raised serious question marks about the modus operandi of the tribunal, with the court expressing ‘serious concerns’ about how it had conducted itself with Gogarty.
And it remains to be seen whether its investigations have really once and for all changed planning and how business and politics interact.
Many will remain sceptical on that one.
Shane Coleman is Political Editor of Newstalk
What a corrupt political system we have.Our politicians are and always have been laughing at us.
We just sit back and meekly accept it.How much was spent on all these tribunals and what was their net result?
They created a few more rich men in our legal profession.They will come in handy down the line.
How many trees did it take to produce this 3,270 pages of pure shyte ?
Nothing will ever change in this country and our current government is just a horse of a different colour.
We just sit back and meekly accept it.How much was spent on all these tribunals and what was their net result?
They created a few more rich men in our legal profession.They will come in handy down the line.
How many trees did it take to produce this 3,270 pages of pure shyte ?
Nothing will ever change in this country and our current government is just a horse of a different colour.
15 years and all that expense for that? Obviously they couldn't prove the requisite connections to find him corrupt but in the end this has cost a fortune and we've got nothing except a bit on P.Flynn who is no longer even relevant politically today. qwaste is a strong word but the result is disapointing.
Ultimately, the golden circle proved impenetrable with no clearcut trail to the money sources.
That is what Ireland was and is and we get the politicians we deserve.
That is what Ireland was and is and we get the politicians we deserve.
Waste of time any money. In most other countries the police would have dealt with this and people would have been jailed. The result of this tribunal means nothing really.
How was it a waste? Didnt it make Millionaires out of 30 members of the legal profession.....
Never was it more apt to invoke the old adage, an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
Would make you want to vomit.
Never was it more apt to invoke the old adage, an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
Would make you want to vomit.
Bertie cant believe that they cant believe him. Unbelievable.
He lied and lied and he lied again, and still some people will vote for these Traitors.
Lads you are forgetting who set up the tribunal ? Fianna Fail did. Why did it cost so much ? because they lied, would not coperate and tried to obstruct it at every turn. The Cabinet of the day tried to get the tribunal closed down..... which by the way included the "new Fianna Fail" of Mehole Martin.
The traditions of Fianna Fail is clear, it is that of coruption.
Lads you are forgetting who set up the tribunal ? Fianna Fail did. Why did it cost so much ? because they lied, would not coperate and tried to obstruct it at every turn. The Cabinet of the day tried to get the tribunal closed down..... which by the way included the "new Fianna Fail" of Mehole Martin.
The traditions of Fianna Fail is clear, it is that of coruption.
Did anyone hear the odious little creep's brother last night ?
Almost had me reaching for the violin. "It was much harder in politics 20 years ago"
Simple solution here is to strip all these bastards of all their big fat pensions.
Hit them where it hurts.
As for Michael Martin and the FF horror at this revelation.
Almost had me reaching for the violin. "It was much harder in politics 20 years ago"
Simple solution here is to strip all these bastards of all their big fat pensions.
Hit them where it hurts.
As for Michael Martin and the FF horror at this revelation.
Does anyone think anything has changed and given different financial circumstances than those prevailing today that the same power-hungry, arrogant politicos wouldn't raise to the top? In the immortal words of an old boss: how many of your local councillors would you trust with your granny's pension book?
Our system is broken beyond repair evidenced by part of the old FF vanguard still in power, Lowry in his pomp, no changes to anything remotely associated with the reform agenda (take your pick: senate, county councils, patronage, donations, too many TD's, self-governance in standards and bench-marking, quango sinecures and outrageous rewards to certain public and civil servants not to mention the continued featherbedding of the professional elites).
From a population of 4m people we produced a pensioner, James Gogarty, and an emigrant, Tom Gilmartin, as the only two brave whistle-blowers that sought to try to bring some justice and equity to yet another sorry tale.
Mother Ireland is in tears................again
P.S. somehow writing of horseracing and my bulletin has lost all appeal for now.
Our system is broken beyond repair evidenced by part of the old FF vanguard still in power, Lowry in his pomp, no changes to anything remotely associated with the reform agenda (take your pick: senate, county councils, patronage, donations, too many TD's, self-governance in standards and bench-marking, quango sinecures and outrageous rewards to certain public and civil servants not to mention the continued featherbedding of the professional elites).
From a population of 4m people we produced a pensioner, James Gogarty, and an emigrant, Tom Gilmartin, as the only two brave whistle-blowers that sought to try to bring some justice and equity to yet another sorry tale.
Mother Ireland is in tears................again
P.S. somehow writing of horseracing and my bulletin has lost all appeal for now.
Great post.
The whole sorry situation would drive one to despair.
The whole sorry situation would drive one to despair.
Great piece by Miriam Lord in today's Irish Times :
Martin and Fianna Fáil can spare us the act, we don't want to hear it now
MIRIAM LORD
SPARE US your indignation, Micheál Martin. Button your disgust, Fianna Fáil. We don’t want to hear it. You had your chance and you chose to do nothing. So don’t pretend to be shocked now.
Just do us that much. We won’t buy it.
If the tribunal were to take another 15 years to deliver its findings, you’d still be sitting on your hands.
I sat through all of Bertie Ahern’s evidence. It was appalling.
Hilarious? Frequently. Pathetic? Often. Infuriating? Utterly. Embarrassing? Completely.
I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now.
And, unlike the clever people entrusted by us to run the country at the time, I didn’t have to wait years for a tribunal of inquiry to tell me.
But did it matter? Well yes, it did, because this man, grinning in the witness box, was our taoiseach.
He wasn’t a corner-cutting property developer. He wasn’t a millionaire builder, doing what you have to do to close a deal. He wasn’t an amoral middle-man or a small-time councillor on the make.
Bertie Ahern was the prime minister of our country, holder of the highest office in the land.
That’s supposed to mean something.
And he was lying through his teeth. Anybody with half an ounce of wit could see it.
Reporters detailed his ridiculous explanations for the huge amounts of money washing through his myriad accounts, and resting in his office safes. The most cursory of examinations of the daily transcripts would have shown up his risible stories for the twaddle that they were.
But throughout, his government and party turned a blind eye; squirmed and twisted and gave every manner of excuse to avoid the blindingly obvious taking place in full public view in a State-established inquiry.
He was lying.
“Due process,” they spluttered, when not muttering about being too busy to read his lengthy testimony. “It’s not an issue on the doorsteps,” they parroted, as if that made all the difference.
Of course, they couldn’t prejudge the report either. We can’t interfere: let the tribunal take its course, they chorused.
Rubbish.
They commented when it suited them, taking selective quotes from the transcript to bolster their arguments, like when ministers mobilised to insist the tribunal had cleared Ahern of allegations of non-compliance.
It wasn’t true.
The tribunal merely stated it wasn’t addressing these allegations, one way or the other.
Bertie Ahern was not in front of the courts. His evidence was not sub judice. Ministers, backbenchers and cheerleaders could comment, and act, as they saw fit.
But they turned a blind eye to the lies of their leader and instead, attacked the tribunal for daring to ask him legitimate, hard questions. Party, and political expediency was more important than political integrity and public trust in our democracy.
It was spurned for one more twirl on the political gravy train.
If Bertie Ahern was making a mockery of us inside that tribunal chamber, his colleagues were every bit as bad outside of it.
Worse, even. For Bertie was fighting tooth and nail to save his reputation – at least he had a reason.
No surprise then, to see that when the Mahon tribunal chickens finally came home to roost yesterday, Fianna Fáil pushed the young people forward into the line of fire.
Par for the course.
Micheál Martin surfaced on the evening news. Talking to Dobbo – looking almost as sad as Bertie Ahern on that famous evening in September when he poured out his heart to the RTÉ anchorman – Deputy Martin said he accepted the findings of the report and took them very seriously.
Back in 2008, when his leader had them rolling in the aisles with his far-fetched yarns of wads of cash turning up in his office and a “sinking fund” of money to stop that same office from sliding into the river Tolka, Micheál robustly declared that he believed Bertie’s evidence and accused the opposition of using the tribunal process to undermine Ahern’s political leadership.
He wasn’t alone in taking up the cudgels for his beleaguered boss.
But Mahon nailed the spineless and cynical response of those senior ministers to the cross-examination of their leader, their election winner who had to be protected at all costs.
There were “unseemly and partisan attacks” on the tribunal with a “sustained and virulent attack” on their work from “senior government ministers.” It didn’t bother those political paragons in 2007/2008, as they trotted out on to the Leinster House plinth and fanned across the national airwaves to defend the indefensible.
Those of us who were enduring Ahern’s farcical evidence couldn’t help but feel angered and demoralised by the closing of ranks in the cabinet.
Bertie’s colleagues eventually took him out because even they could not stomach the mounting shame caused by his tawdry excuses for all the money he amassed when minister for finance.
Money which was far in excess of his earnings and for which he couldn’t plausibly account.
When a low-paid office secretary, through her tears, was forced to endure two harrowing days in the witness box as part of his faltering efforts to keep up his cover story, they could take no more.
But as a consolation prize, they let Bertie off on a lap of honour around the world and lauded him as the finest politician of his generation.
The former taoiseach was lying even before the tribunal began. After The Irish Times published that first story of very large sums of money flowing into his coffers, Bertie met it head on.
“Off the wall!” he declared, when presented with a figure of between fifty and a hundred thousand pounds.
He was right, in a way. That figure was far larger.
Punts. Sterling. Dollars. It didn’t matter to Bertie. Once it was hard cash. He always dealt in cash, we were repeatedly told.
The saga of the two digouts will go down in song and story. The explanation, told in tearful tones to Bryan Dobson, was that he was hard up for money after his marital separation and his pals rallied around to give him the deposit for a house.
That was another fairytale. His mates, smirking and swaggering, corroborated it. Nobody believed a word of it, not least because the tribunal had already established that Bertie was awash with cash.
Then there was Micheal Wall, the North of England businessman, who attended the Manchester whip-around night but “didn’t eat the dinner.”
He bought a house for Bertie and provided the money to build a conservatory while tens of thousands more were lodged in the bank by Celia Larkin to do up this mini-Versailles in Drumcondra.
She had the receipts. About the only documentary evidence surviving. The tribunal dismissed the entire caper.
Tall story piled upon tall story, until the former taoiseach had to fall back on the time-tested “won-it-on-the-horses” defence to account for some of the cash.
The timing of the hearings was lucky for Bertie. The sums of money involved would have been huge, back in the early 1990s. But he took the stand during the building boom, when the most of the figures under examination could be compared to the deposit on a shoe-box apartment on the outskirts of town.
People, shelling out hundreds of thousands for badly built starter homes, shrugged. Small beer, or so they thought.
Today, deep in negative equity, they think differently. The actions of people who subverted the planning process had a consequence, one they are now living.
But, as Bertie Ahern’s supporters were quick to point out yesterday, he subverted nothing. The tribunal found no proof of corruption.
Just all this money, for which they found he had no credible explanation. In fact, in the circumspect way of judges, they essentially said he lied about where he got that money.
Look. Bertie doesn’t matter anymore. Nor does the buffoonish Pee Flynn or those grasping councillors. Most of Ahern’s cabinet have departed the political scene.
“I believe political loyalty is a virtue and that loyalty will be maintained by the government for the taoiseach on the basis of his achievements” said Brian Cowen, his eventual successor.
But Bertie Ahern was not just their taoiseach.
He was our taoiseach too.
And that’s the tragedy.
He lied. I heard him.
We all saw it.
Our taoiseach dishonoured the office with his tribunal performance. And by deliberately averting their gaze, so too did his colleagues and his party.
So spare us your indignation, Micheál Martin.
Button your disgust, Fianna Fáil.
We don’t want to hear it now.
Martin and Fianna Fáil can spare us the act, we don't want to hear it now
MIRIAM LORD
SPARE US your indignation, Micheál Martin. Button your disgust, Fianna Fáil. We don’t want to hear it. You had your chance and you chose to do nothing. So don’t pretend to be shocked now.
Just do us that much. We won’t buy it.
If the tribunal were to take another 15 years to deliver its findings, you’d still be sitting on your hands.
I sat through all of Bertie Ahern’s evidence. It was appalling.
Hilarious? Frequently. Pathetic? Often. Infuriating? Utterly. Embarrassing? Completely.
I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now.
And, unlike the clever people entrusted by us to run the country at the time, I didn’t have to wait years for a tribunal of inquiry to tell me.
But did it matter? Well yes, it did, because this man, grinning in the witness box, was our taoiseach.
He wasn’t a corner-cutting property developer. He wasn’t a millionaire builder, doing what you have to do to close a deal. He wasn’t an amoral middle-man or a small-time councillor on the make.
Bertie Ahern was the prime minister of our country, holder of the highest office in the land.
That’s supposed to mean something.
And he was lying through his teeth. Anybody with half an ounce of wit could see it.
Reporters detailed his ridiculous explanations for the huge amounts of money washing through his myriad accounts, and resting in his office safes. The most cursory of examinations of the daily transcripts would have shown up his risible stories for the twaddle that they were.
But throughout, his government and party turned a blind eye; squirmed and twisted and gave every manner of excuse to avoid the blindingly obvious taking place in full public view in a State-established inquiry.
He was lying.
“Due process,” they spluttered, when not muttering about being too busy to read his lengthy testimony. “It’s not an issue on the doorsteps,” they parroted, as if that made all the difference.
Of course, they couldn’t prejudge the report either. We can’t interfere: let the tribunal take its course, they chorused.
Rubbish.
They commented when it suited them, taking selective quotes from the transcript to bolster their arguments, like when ministers mobilised to insist the tribunal had cleared Ahern of allegations of non-compliance.
It wasn’t true.
The tribunal merely stated it wasn’t addressing these allegations, one way or the other.
Bertie Ahern was not in front of the courts. His evidence was not sub judice. Ministers, backbenchers and cheerleaders could comment, and act, as they saw fit.
But they turned a blind eye to the lies of their leader and instead, attacked the tribunal for daring to ask him legitimate, hard questions. Party, and political expediency was more important than political integrity and public trust in our democracy.
It was spurned for one more twirl on the political gravy train.
If Bertie Ahern was making a mockery of us inside that tribunal chamber, his colleagues were every bit as bad outside of it.
Worse, even. For Bertie was fighting tooth and nail to save his reputation – at least he had a reason.
No surprise then, to see that when the Mahon tribunal chickens finally came home to roost yesterday, Fianna Fáil pushed the young people forward into the line of fire.
Par for the course.
Micheál Martin surfaced on the evening news. Talking to Dobbo – looking almost as sad as Bertie Ahern on that famous evening in September when he poured out his heart to the RTÉ anchorman – Deputy Martin said he accepted the findings of the report and took them very seriously.
Back in 2008, when his leader had them rolling in the aisles with his far-fetched yarns of wads of cash turning up in his office and a “sinking fund” of money to stop that same office from sliding into the river Tolka, Micheál robustly declared that he believed Bertie’s evidence and accused the opposition of using the tribunal process to undermine Ahern’s political leadership.
He wasn’t alone in taking up the cudgels for his beleaguered boss.
But Mahon nailed the spineless and cynical response of those senior ministers to the cross-examination of their leader, their election winner who had to be protected at all costs.
There were “unseemly and partisan attacks” on the tribunal with a “sustained and virulent attack” on their work from “senior government ministers.” It didn’t bother those political paragons in 2007/2008, as they trotted out on to the Leinster House plinth and fanned across the national airwaves to defend the indefensible.
Those of us who were enduring Ahern’s farcical evidence couldn’t help but feel angered and demoralised by the closing of ranks in the cabinet.
Bertie’s colleagues eventually took him out because even they could not stomach the mounting shame caused by his tawdry excuses for all the money he amassed when minister for finance.
Money which was far in excess of his earnings and for which he couldn’t plausibly account.
When a low-paid office secretary, through her tears, was forced to endure two harrowing days in the witness box as part of his faltering efforts to keep up his cover story, they could take no more.
But as a consolation prize, they let Bertie off on a lap of honour around the world and lauded him as the finest politician of his generation.
The former taoiseach was lying even before the tribunal began. After The Irish Times published that first story of very large sums of money flowing into his coffers, Bertie met it head on.
“Off the wall!” he declared, when presented with a figure of between fifty and a hundred thousand pounds.
He was right, in a way. That figure was far larger.
Punts. Sterling. Dollars. It didn’t matter to Bertie. Once it was hard cash. He always dealt in cash, we were repeatedly told.
The saga of the two digouts will go down in song and story. The explanation, told in tearful tones to Bryan Dobson, was that he was hard up for money after his marital separation and his pals rallied around to give him the deposit for a house.
That was another fairytale. His mates, smirking and swaggering, corroborated it. Nobody believed a word of it, not least because the tribunal had already established that Bertie was awash with cash.
Then there was Micheal Wall, the North of England businessman, who attended the Manchester whip-around night but “didn’t eat the dinner.”
He bought a house for Bertie and provided the money to build a conservatory while tens of thousands more were lodged in the bank by Celia Larkin to do up this mini-Versailles in Drumcondra.
She had the receipts. About the only documentary evidence surviving. The tribunal dismissed the entire caper.
Tall story piled upon tall story, until the former taoiseach had to fall back on the time-tested “won-it-on-the-horses” defence to account for some of the cash.
The timing of the hearings was lucky for Bertie. The sums of money involved would have been huge, back in the early 1990s. But he took the stand during the building boom, when the most of the figures under examination could be compared to the deposit on a shoe-box apartment on the outskirts of town.
People, shelling out hundreds of thousands for badly built starter homes, shrugged. Small beer, or so they thought.
Today, deep in negative equity, they think differently. The actions of people who subverted the planning process had a consequence, one they are now living.
But, as Bertie Ahern’s supporters were quick to point out yesterday, he subverted nothing. The tribunal found no proof of corruption.
Just all this money, for which they found he had no credible explanation. In fact, in the circumspect way of judges, they essentially said he lied about where he got that money.
Look. Bertie doesn’t matter anymore. Nor does the buffoonish Pee Flynn or those grasping councillors. Most of Ahern’s cabinet have departed the political scene.
“I believe political loyalty is a virtue and that loyalty will be maintained by the government for the taoiseach on the basis of his achievements” said Brian Cowen, his eventual successor.
But Bertie Ahern was not just their taoiseach.
He was our taoiseach too.
And that’s the tragedy.
He lied. I heard him.
We all saw it.
Our taoiseach dishonoured the office with his tribunal performance. And by deliberately averting their gaze, so too did his colleagues and his party.
So spare us your indignation, Micheál Martin.
Button your disgust, Fianna Fáil.
We don’t want to hear it now.
Micheál Martin surfaced on the evening news. Talking to Dobbo – looking almost as sad as Bertie Ahern on that famous evening in September when he poured out his heart to the RTÉ anchorman – Deputy Martin said he accepted the findings of the report and took them very seriously.
-----------------------
Berbatov is a chip off the old block and the fake shock about the outcome is nauseating.
-----------------------
Berbatov is a chip off the old block and the fake shock about the outcome is nauseating.
Incidentally -why was there no attempt to pursue the detail of the money Ahern claimed to have won on the horses ?
Was it one big bet or a number of bets ? Who was the bookie/s ? Was it Irish and/or UK racing ? What were the stakes - hundreds/thousands ?
- singles or multiples ?How did he pick those horses -was it form reading or tips ...and if tips -from what source ?
How often did he bet - did he have an account ? etc. etc.
There must have been a multiplicity of ways in which this claim could have been stood up -or completely demolished.
Was it one big bet or a number of bets ? Who was the bookie/s ? Was it Irish and/or UK racing ? What were the stakes - hundreds/thousands ?
- singles or multiples ?How did he pick those horses -was it form reading or tips ...and if tips -from what source ?
How often did he bet - did he have an account ? etc. etc.
There must have been a multiplicity of ways in which this claim could have been stood up -or completely demolished.
This is a result of the beuracratic socialist state we have persieded over.
Where goverment agencies are so slow and ponderous that it takes years for things to be done, where pride of the parish(Inherently GAA retehoric) where we don't do bad on those we know have combined to damage society as a whole.
Politics is a rotten business, people who join such are ones that have a urge to be liked, the guy that knows everyone but know's no one comes to mind. IMHO there needs to be a complete overhaul of goverment and a privatiation of State Asset's which is accompanied by strict regulation and oversight(never had for the banking sector) for this country to move forward.
I have no problem paying for things as long as the service is good and i get what i pay for. I don't want Goverment telling me what i can do and what i cant.
Goverments role IMO is too provide the conditions for buisness to flourish (not the opposite as it is now) and to do right by the General Public good. Personal responsibility had gone out the window in this Country and all everyone does is blame everyone else.
If people want to smoke and Drink, let them smoke and Drink but make it abundently clear that they will have to pay for there treatment for Lung or liver Cancer as a result 20 years down the line.
We need a Fox News in this country to counter the Liberal elite in the Irish Media.
So many problems so little hope for the future. Can we impeach are leaders if they are still in office??.....
Where goverment agencies are so slow and ponderous that it takes years for things to be done, where pride of the parish(Inherently GAA retehoric) where we don't do bad on those we know have combined to damage society as a whole.
Politics is a rotten business, people who join such are ones that have a urge to be liked, the guy that knows everyone but know's no one comes to mind. IMHO there needs to be a complete overhaul of goverment and a privatiation of State Asset's which is accompanied by strict regulation and oversight(never had for the banking sector) for this country to move forward.
I have no problem paying for things as long as the service is good and i get what i pay for. I don't want Goverment telling me what i can do and what i cant.
Goverments role IMO is too provide the conditions for buisness to flourish (not the opposite as it is now) and to do right by the General Public good. Personal responsibility had gone out the window in this Country and all everyone does is blame everyone else.
If people want to smoke and Drink, let them smoke and Drink but make it abundently clear that they will have to pay for there treatment for Lung or liver Cancer as a result 20 years down the line.
We need a Fox News in this country to counter the Liberal elite in the Irish Media.
So many problems so little hope for the future. Can we impeach are leaders if they are still in office??.....
Vubiant makes a good point, was Bertie involved with illegal gambling?? as no records have been found or case brought forward.
CAB will be after him, Reveune will be after him, the Courts should be after him.
The fact that he lied under oath is a damning of the man. I believe that some of the many from guys like Charlie Chalk was for his personal use friend to friend but the other stuff is so farfetched is astonishing a leader who make up such a fairytale
CAB will be after him, Reveune will be after him, the Courts should be after him.
The fact that he lied under oath is a damning of the man. I believe that some of the many from guys like Charlie Chalk was for his personal use friend to friend but the other stuff is so farfetched is astonishing a leader who make up such a fairytale
He (Bertie) is going to be caught for his own costs which should be substantial by the looks of it as his evidence was not accepted by the Tribunal.
Looks like the mother of all whip-arounds may be needed ....
(or a successful session at Aintree and Punchestown).
(or a successful session at Aintree and Punchestown).
The betting on the horses excuse was so risible that there was no need to demolish it.
There was a conspiracy with regards the alleged dig outs,all the contributers gave cash including one[Barry English]who was a young man starting out and was living in a bedsit,he allegedly coughed up five grand in cash.
The nonsense about the house which was in the name of Michael Wall was also laughable.Although Wall had children of his own he still bequeathed it to Bertie and in the event of them dying at the same time the house then went to Berties daughters,Mr Wall seemed determined that his own children were not going to get their hands on Berties house.
There was a conspiracy with regards the alleged dig outs,all the contributers gave cash including one[Barry English]who was a young man starting out and was living in a bedsit,he allegedly coughed up five grand in cash.
The nonsense about the house which was in the name of Michael Wall was also laughable.Although Wall had children of his own he still bequeathed it to Bertie and in the event of them dying at the same time the house then went to Berties daughters,Mr Wall seemed determined that his own children were not going to get their hands on Berties house.
Not that long ago during Galway race week a reporter went into the famous ff tent and interviewd Bertie and Charlie McCreevy..........when a tip was asked for bertie replied "I know nothing about racing you want to ask this man "- nodding to McCreevy.
The explanation of "I won it on the horses" was so insulting to both the Tribunal and the people of the country that to explore it would have been wrong.What I would like to know now is what action is going to be taken against these people i.e. criminal proceeding,tax audits,make them pay their costs,stop their pensions,but knowing this cesspit of a country I would not hold my breath.
I seen Bertie in the lobby of Ashford Castle reading the Irish Times racing section, and no- I wasnt staying there, just collecting someone. This was July, 3 or 4 years ago.
By Ken Foy, Crime correspondent herald.ie
Friday March 23 2012
LAND bought by disgraced former EU commissioner Padraig Flynn could be seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, it has emerged.
The development comes as senior gardai study the Mahon Tribunal report which ruled that Flynn was corrupt and that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was untruthful to the tribunal.
The tribunal found that the money used to buy a 100-acre-farm located close to Killala in North Mayo in 1997 came from a corrupt payment that the former Environment Minister received. The report found he had wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from developer Tom Gilmartin for Fianna Fail, and having been paid IR£50,000 had proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.
Target
Part of the £50,000 was used to buy the farm in Cloonanass, Co Mayo, in the name of Mr Flynn's wife Dorothy.
With the Garda Fraud Squad now expected to begin a massive probe into the findings of corruption against Flynn, sources say that if convicted of such an offence, CAB could seize the farm under proceeds of crime legislation.
Another possible target for gardai is Flynn's former Fianna Fail Cabinet colleague Bertie Ahern.
The Mahon Tribunal found that Ahern failed to truthfully account for over IR£165,000 lodged in bank accounts connected to him.
If convicted of perjury under the Tribunal of Inquiry Act, Ahern could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty of the offence or if after a garda investigation, the DPP decided to prosecute him for perjury under common law, he could face an even stiffer sentence.
However, in order for prosecutions to take place, the DPP must independently assemble evidence that a specific offence was committed, and then be satisfied that this evidence proves the offence beyond reasonable doubt.
Gardai say it is too early to tell if there will be fresh prosecutions following the report but have confirmed that senior officers are already studying it.
It is expected to be a number of days before it is confirmed that an official garda investigation will take place.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is expected to appoint a team of senior officers to review the report. Those found to have made or received corrupt payments will charged with criminal offences, sources say.
kfoy@herald.ie
Friday March 23 2012
LAND bought by disgraced former EU commissioner Padraig Flynn could be seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, it has emerged.
The development comes as senior gardai study the Mahon Tribunal report which ruled that Flynn was corrupt and that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was untruthful to the tribunal.
The tribunal found that the money used to buy a 100-acre-farm located close to Killala in North Mayo in 1997 came from a corrupt payment that the former Environment Minister received. The report found he had wrongfully and corruptly sought a substantial donation from developer Tom Gilmartin for Fianna Fail, and having been paid IR£50,000 had proceeded to utilise the money for his personal benefit.
Target
Part of the £50,000 was used to buy the farm in Cloonanass, Co Mayo, in the name of Mr Flynn's wife Dorothy.
With the Garda Fraud Squad now expected to begin a massive probe into the findings of corruption against Flynn, sources say that if convicted of such an offence, CAB could seize the farm under proceeds of crime legislation.
Another possible target for gardai is Flynn's former Fianna Fail Cabinet colleague Bertie Ahern.
The Mahon Tribunal found that Ahern failed to truthfully account for over IR£165,000 lodged in bank accounts connected to him.
If convicted of perjury under the Tribunal of Inquiry Act, Ahern could be jailed for up to two years if found guilty of the offence or if after a garda investigation, the DPP decided to prosecute him for perjury under common law, he could face an even stiffer sentence.
However, in order for prosecutions to take place, the DPP must independently assemble evidence that a specific offence was committed, and then be satisfied that this evidence proves the offence beyond reasonable doubt.
Gardai say it is too early to tell if there will be fresh prosecutions following the report but have confirmed that senior officers are already studying it.
It is expected to be a number of days before it is confirmed that an official garda investigation will take place.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is expected to appoint a team of senior officers to review the report. Those found to have made or received corrupt payments will charged with criminal offences, sources say.
kfoy@herald.ie
Bertie still raking in €152,331 a year of taxpayers money
Friday March 23 2012
BERTIE Ahern is still lining his pockets today -- courtesy of cash-strapped taxpayers.
Despite the revelations about his money trail, the public purse is funding the ex-Taoiseach to the tune of €152,331 every year.
Mr Ahern is entitled to the massive pension payments because of his 34 years in politics -- during which his Fianna Fail party promoted the entitlements for retiring politicians.
Mr Ahern will now be forced to use much of this money to pay for the massive legal fees he built up during the Tribunal -- meaning taxpayers will ultimately get stung for the cash.
The Mahon Tribunal called for a change in the laws so that politicians found guilty of taking bribes could be stripped of their lucrative pensions.
Even if the Government were to introduce a law to do this it would not affect Mr Ahern as the report stops short of calling him corrupt.
But Mr Ahern's hopes of raking it in with €10,000-a-pop after-dinner speeches have been destroyed by the Mahon Report.
He is not the only one receiving a whopping payout from the taxpayer.
Former minister Padraig Flynn and Fianna Fail stalwart GV Wright are both milking lucrative State pensions.
Mr Flynn (72) -- who used a £50,000 donation to buy a farm -- is still collecting €87,129 form the State coffers.
Removal
'Pee' Flynn has still not responded to the Mahon Tribunal's finding that he acted "corruptly" by seeking a donation from developer Tom Gilmartin.
And former Fianna Fail TD and senator GV Wright (64) -- who the Tribunal said received a £5,000 "corrupt" payment -- is receiving €51,000 in an annual pension from his time in Leinster House.
The Mahon Report points out that Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 only provides for the removal of pension rights in the cases of public officials.
"As these sanctions appear particularly appropriate in the case of bribery involving Oireachtas members, the Tribunal is recommending that the 1889 Act be extended to cover them," the report says.
The report adds that corruption is often seen as a victimless crime but in reality there are too many victims to be identified individually.
"Political corruption diverts public resources to the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many," it said
Friday March 23 2012
BERTIE Ahern is still lining his pockets today -- courtesy of cash-strapped taxpayers.
Despite the revelations about his money trail, the public purse is funding the ex-Taoiseach to the tune of €152,331 every year.
Mr Ahern is entitled to the massive pension payments because of his 34 years in politics -- during which his Fianna Fail party promoted the entitlements for retiring politicians.
Mr Ahern will now be forced to use much of this money to pay for the massive legal fees he built up during the Tribunal -- meaning taxpayers will ultimately get stung for the cash.
The Mahon Tribunal called for a change in the laws so that politicians found guilty of taking bribes could be stripped of their lucrative pensions.
Even if the Government were to introduce a law to do this it would not affect Mr Ahern as the report stops short of calling him corrupt.
But Mr Ahern's hopes of raking it in with €10,000-a-pop after-dinner speeches have been destroyed by the Mahon Report.
He is not the only one receiving a whopping payout from the taxpayer.
Former minister Padraig Flynn and Fianna Fail stalwart GV Wright are both milking lucrative State pensions.
Mr Flynn (72) -- who used a £50,000 donation to buy a farm -- is still collecting €87,129 form the State coffers.
Removal
'Pee' Flynn has still not responded to the Mahon Tribunal's finding that he acted "corruptly" by seeking a donation from developer Tom Gilmartin.
And former Fianna Fail TD and senator GV Wright (64) -- who the Tribunal said received a £5,000 "corrupt" payment -- is receiving €51,000 in an annual pension from his time in Leinster House.
The Mahon Report points out that Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 only provides for the removal of pension rights in the cases of public officials.
"As these sanctions appear particularly appropriate in the case of bribery involving Oireachtas members, the Tribunal is recommending that the 1889 Act be extended to cover them," the report says.
The report adds that corruption is often seen as a victimless crime but in reality there are too many victims to be identified individually.
"Political corruption diverts public resources to the benefit of the few and at the expense of the many," it said
One of the guys who gave him a dig out was Paddy The Plasterer
Bertie The Liar has resigned
Bertie Ahern resigns from Fianna Fáil rte.ie
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced that he is resigning from Fianna Fáil - just days before the party's National Executive meets to consider expelling him.
In an article written for tomorrow's Sunday Independent newspaper, Mr Ahern said the tabling of a motion to expel him "deeply saddened" him.
Current party leader Micheál Martin announced he was to propose the motion on Thursday, after the publication of the final report of the Mahon Tribunal.
In his article, Mr Ahern said the last thing he wanted to do was to be a source of political division in the party, which is why he decided to tender his resignation.
He stresses that this is a political decision, and not in any way an admission of wrongdoing.
The article reiterates his rejection of the Tribunal's findings, and confirms he is considering options for vindicating his good name
Bertie Ahern resigns from Fianna Fáil rte.ie
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has announced that he is resigning from Fianna Fáil - just days before the party's National Executive meets to consider expelling him.
In an article written for tomorrow's Sunday Independent newspaper, Mr Ahern said the tabling of a motion to expel him "deeply saddened" him.
Current party leader Micheál Martin announced he was to propose the motion on Thursday, after the publication of the final report of the Mahon Tribunal.
In his article, Mr Ahern said the last thing he wanted to do was to be a source of political division in the party, which is why he decided to tender his resignation.
He stresses that this is a political decision, and not in any way an admission of wrongdoing.
The article reiterates his rejection of the Tribunal's findings, and confirms he is considering options for vindicating his good name
1.01 he won`t bother with the vindication unless he gets an Oscar Wilde moment.
Should be in jail. FF are just corrupt. However i don't think any of the latest shower are any better. Probably not corrupt but who knows. Some sf boy stealing 50k on toners says it all. We are a joke of a country. I'd say expenses they are claiming are unreal.
The shinners claiming around 60k a month expenses and one doom and gloom socialist party member sticks in for a 5.5k monthly.........one newly elected fg td told my auld fella he can easily pull 4.5/5 k a month in expenses on top of his 98k salary........he also realises he has 4 years to milk it.
Post Your Reply
Please login to post a reply.
Wonder
Instance ID: 13539