Bertie wins €10,000

super_furry wrote: »

I dislike Bertie Ahern and much of what he stands for, but you can’t really have a go at him for being lucky. No-one supports or buys local club lotto tickets to make money, they do so to support the cause.

One of Bertie Ahern's dig-out pals handed him IR£16,500 in cash as he was having a quiet midweek pint in their local pub.

Publican Dermot Carew had gathered the cash and put it into a safe at his Beaumont House pub, before handing it to Mr Ahern when he called in on his own. The Mahon Tribunal yesterday heard how the then-Finance Minister put the folder stuffed with cash on the seat beside him and covered it with his coat while he was at the pub for a drink.

Mr Carew told the tribunal yesterday about Mr Ahern's second dig-out, describing the sum as "a few pound". He said a whip around was proposed over a couple of pints between himself, Barry English and Joe Burke in September 1994.

He said Mr Ahern was living in a flat above his constituency office in St Luke's and the money was supposed to be put towards buying a house.

Repayment

Mr Carew said that Mr Ahern was amazed by the gesture, took the money, and sometimes brought up the subject of repayment over the coming years.

Mr Carew described how he went to the safe at his pub and produced the folder of cash for Mr Ahern which he said had been gathered in different amounts over a week.

"I said to him, 'Bert, the boys and myself want you to have this, a few pound towards a house'," Mr Carew told the tribunal. He (Mr Ahern) said 'No,' I won't use the word he used and I said to him, 'the boys won't take it back, no feckin' way'," Mr Carew added.

Mr Ahern, he said, put the folder full of cash on the seat beside him and covered it with his coat. The fact that Bertie Ahern had no home of his own was felt by his friends to be damaging to him and his career. But Mr Carew told the tribunal he did not know that Mr Ahern had IR£50,000 in cash savings, or that he had got IR£22,500 from other friends in December 1993. He also denied knowledge that Mr Ahern had IR£20,000 in the Irish Permanent Building Society. Mr Carew said: "I said it to Bert a few times that he should get a feckin' house, and he said that he was in the process of saving for it. We decided to throw in a few quid each."

He added that when Mr Ahern accepted, on condition that it was a loan, he (Mr Carew) was just happy that he took the money. He said Mr Ahern offered to repay the money on numerous occasions. "He said something like, 'Dermot, I must fix up that few quid with you', but I told him I didn't want it."

The tribunal is investigating a lodgment of IR£24,838.49 by Mr Ahern. It has said previously it does not equate with Mr Ahern's explanation of it being this second dig-out loan plus around £8,000 sterling from Manchester businessmen. But as the tribunal heard again that it does correspond to an exchange rate for £25,000 sterling, Mr Ahern said he never made this lodgment.

Mr Carew said his portion of the loan was paid back last year. He got a phone call from St Luke's to say that a cheque was waiting for him. He had already decided to give the money to charity and had chosen CARI, of which Miriam Ahern is patron.

Replying to Judge Mary Faherty, Mr Carew said he hadn't a clue why he phoned publican Charlie Chawke about the repaid cheques going to charity. "It was a spur of the moment thing. Charlie was a friend for years." He said he knew Mr Chawke was not part of that second dig-out group.

Fizman wrote: »

Eh? Where's your pacman smiley??

Teddy Chips wrote: »

I'm just not comfortable with people implying Mr Ahern won the lottery by any other means then fair ones.