Tribunal leaks
From Mahon Tribunal
[edit] September 2006
The most significant leak was published in the Irish Times of 21 September 2006.
Journalist Colm Keena based the story on a letter from the Tribunal to businessman David McKenna inquiring about payments he may have made to Bertie Ahern around Christmas 1993. However, the story was also the first public mention of the legal expenses "dig-out", a context not provided in this letter. Irish Times
The resulting controversy led Bertie Ahern to give an extended interview to RTÉ in which he outlined two rounds of funds received: the aforementioned Christmas sums and an earlier event in Manchester. RTÉ interview He provided a list of names and amounts for the former but was only able to provide vague details about the latter. Dobson interview
Mr Ahern also made several statements to Dail Eireann about his financial affairs. His responses during Leaders' Questions on 27 September 2006 seemed to imply that his tax affairs had been in order for the duration from the alleged dig-out to the present, a period during which he was required to produce several tax clearance certificates. Official Dail Report.
The Tribunal later sought to cross-examine Mr Ahern about these Dail statements but he challenged their right to do so, invoking Article 15, Section 13 of the Constitution of Ireland: "The members of each House of the Oireachtas shall, except in case of treason as defined in this Constitution, felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest in going to and returning from, and while within the precincts of, either House, and shall not, in respect of any utterance in either House, be amenable to any court or any authority other than the House itself". Mr Ahern was granted leave to pursue this and other challenges before the High Court on 11 February 2008.
[edit] The source
There has been no progress in determining the source of the leak.
The Tribunal's legal team has floated the possibility that Mr McKenna was responsible, but he has denied this under oath. PDF
Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy has told subsequent legal hearings that the newspaper destroyed all source material for the story and has refused to reveal the identify of the sender. On 23 October 2007, the High Court ordered Keena and Kennedy to appear before the Tribunal to divulge their source. Their appearance is pending. See: Court judgments (Judge Mahon -v- Keena & Anor)
The fact of the leak has played an important role in the political dynamic surrounding the Tribunal. It formed a basis (along with the second leak below) of accusations by senior Fianna Fáil figures that the leak was part of a campaign against Bertie Ahern. However, the leak also established the narrative of the dig-outs as the prism through which subsequent revelations have been viewed. This is despite the fact that the Tribunal has found virtually no documentary evidence that the dig-outs occurred. All donations were made in cash.
A second leak was published on Monday 30 April 2007, again in an Irish Times story by Colm Keena. Irish Times This was the day after Bertie Ahern advised President Mary McAleese to dissolve Dáil Éireann and called a General Election on 24 May 2007. RTÉ The article stated that businessman Micheál Wall gave £30,000stg in cash to the Taoiseach's then partner Celia Larkin in December 1994. This was said to cover renovations and stamp duty on a house owned by Wall in which Bertie Ahern was living.
A follow-up story by the Irish Times on 4 May 2007 aired a theory of the Tribunal's lawyers that Wall had been acting as Bertie Ahern's nominee when he bought the house. Irish Times
This leak led senior Fianna Fáil figures to claim that Fine Gael were behind the leaks, while Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny seemed to imply that Minister for Justice Michael McDowell was the source, an accusation later retracted. RTÉ As both stories were apparently based on transcripts of private interviews of Mr Ahern by the Tribunal, it is not obvious how Fine Gael would have had access to them.
With a general election already declared, the Tribunal suspended its hearings as Judge Mahon had previously said he would do, to avoid its hearings being overly politicised. The Tribunal formally dealt with the transactions between Wall, Larkin, and Ahern in the week of 11 September 2007.
On February 12, 2008 private correspondence between Mr Ahern's legal team and the Tribunal was leaked to Newstalk 106. Gilvarry letter.
