Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Denis 'Starry' O'Brien allegation is well known. It was also alleged that I received a further bribe of €30,000 from Owen O'Callaghan in 1992, that I had bank accounts in the Netherlands Antilles, Liechtenstein and Jersey, England, that I had €15 million in onshore accounts and had taken steps to open a bank account in Mauritius. There were other similar, unfounded, allegations made against me which have not yet been made public. Each and every one of these charges is baseless. They are false and no more than a tissue of lies. However, the allegations have been made and the tribunal is required to investigate them, in so far as they fall within its terms of reference.

Those who have made the allegations have gone to extraordinary lengths to set me up. For example, a forged letter purporting to show that I had taken steps to open a bank account in Mauritius was sent to the Moriarty tribunal. I can confirm that correspondence was subsequently forwarded to the tribunal which demonstrates the letter to be a forgery. In any view of the situation, the forwarding of the forgery is a sinister event. Likewise, the recent leaking of confidential details about my finances, family and marital life are also very sinister and has been done in a calculated way in order to damage me.

Deputy Kenny asked me about the issues of 1993 and 1994. I gave the full details of those yesterday. They did not break any law. They did not break any tax law. The Deputy asked if I should have left the loans the way I had them and not listened to friends who were trying to be helpful. I suppose if hindsight was foresight, one would never make any mistakes at all. I did accept them but they were loans given to me in good faith, to be of assistance to me at the time. If the Deputy asked me if it were today, after all that has happened over the years, and I was in a similar position, the answer to his question is no. But the reality is that at the time, I was in a difficult position. They put pressure on me to accept these donations and I did. I only accepted them, after some considerable time, as loans with interest. I knew what the position was and what the law is and that is why I accepted them. I gave the full details yesterday. I can go through all of that again if the Deputy wishes.

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