Bertie Ahern helped businessman get passport

[GavinZac]

Why in relation to the office staff? Because if I had donated 10k I would want someone other than a Young FFer pushing thorugh my passport application

Bertie has said that he isn't a friend of Turner's, but the evidence of free Old Trafford tickets, donations, and express passports might point to that being a porky.

He was asked about Turner in the Tribunal, hence if he had lied about said connection to the Tribunal he could be in a spot of bother, not to mention the damage it will further do to his former 'honest man' reputation

My father gets a fruit basket every Christmas from Eastern Electrical. Does this mean they are good friends? No matter how you try to spin this all it does is come across as either naive or scraping the barrel, or more likely somewhere in between

[monutdfc]

Why? What about the "connections"? And why would he bother, considering that that particular relationship isn't the subject of the tribunal?

One the day of one of the supposed sterling lodgements Ahern made in AIB O'Connell Street the bank did not take in enough sterling for the supposed lodgement to have taken place. They did, however, take in other currencies (the f/x record was split between sterling and other currencies) in an amount over $45,000. The story of the supposed sterling lodgment was changed to a mix of sterling and punt to match the amount lodged, because at the exchange rate at the time it could not have been a round figure in sterling. However, using the exchange rate for amounts up to $2500 (or maybe 2500-5000, I'm not sure) (ok, the wrong rate, but there were very little fx transactions in the bank for higher amounts so the staff would have been used to using the lowest rate) the amount lodged equals $45,000 exactly.

Thus the evidence points towards Bertie having made a dollar lodgement.

What has this to do with Turner? Well Turner has already made a dollar donation to Richardson, he worked for an American consortium, thus he may be the source of this dollar lodgement.

So that's why Bertie would bother. He denied any dollar transactions whatsoever.

[superfrank]

I don't think this incident is so bad but I remember a few years ago the British Home Sec (Plunkett???, blind guy) resigned when it emerged a visa for someone he knew personally was "fast-tracked" because the person knew him. Will Bertie follow suit?

On the subject, my Australian step-father was helped by my aunt, a retired civil servant, to get a PPS number. Is this good or bad seen as she's not a politician?

[monutdfc]

I don't think this incident is so bad but I remember a few years ago the British Home Sec (Plunkett???, blind guy) resigned when it emerged a visa for someone he knew personally was "fast-tracked" because the person knew him. Will Bertie follow suit?

On the subject, my Australian step-father was helped by my aunt, a retired civil servant, to get a PPS number. Is this good or bad seen as she's not a politician?

The actual deed of getting the passport is no big deal - Turner was entitled to it, and it seemingly is not unusual for TDs to fast track passport applications.

But it is evidence of closer links between Ahern and Turner than was previously thought.

Also, it raises other questions, which are not incriminating but are nonetheless curious:
Why did Turner want an Irish passport anyway, when he already had a UK one? (At the time (1994) I'm pretty sure Irish passport holders still had to get a visa to visit the US)
Why did he apply through Ahern when he was entitled to it anyway and could simply apply through the normal channels?

[jebus]

My father gets a fruit basket every Christmas from Eastern Electrical. Does this mean they are good friends? No matter how you try to spin this all it does is come across as either naive or scraping the barrel, or more likely somewhere in between

From the guy arguing Bertie's case solely because he likes to be disagreeable? Scraping the barrell of what? Bertie's financial muddle? Because there is a whole truck load of it waiting out back for delivary

[osarusan]

My father gets a fruit basket every Christmas from Eastern Electrical. Does this mean they are good friends? No matter how you try to spin this all it does is come across as either naive or scraping the barrel, or more likely somewhere in between

Gavin, how would you class the relationship between them?

[GavinZac]

From the guy arguing Bertie's case solely because he likes to be disagreeable? Scraping the barrell of what? Bertie's financial muddle? Because there is a whole truck load of it waiting out back for delivary

Yeah because if I disagree with you, Im just doing it for the sake of it right? Its not like I voted the
way I'm talking.

Gavin, how would you class the relationship between them?

My father and the guy who runs eastern? A good customer-supplier relationship. Bertie and this chap? I don't know, and I don't see that it matters or why anyone else's guess at what they think the relationship was. I mean, ffs, how many people can categorise the people they deal with? You're a friend one moment nd an emotionless vendor the next.

Unless it is related to Bertie Ahern compromising his position as Finance Minister I don't see how/why it matters and I can understand why the Taoiseach would be annoy at these seemingly cul-de-sac probes. And be relation I dont mean rubbish like:

One the day of one of the supposed sterling lodgements Ahern made in AIB O'Connell Street the bank did not take in enough sterling for the supposed lodgement to have taken place. They did, however, take in other currencies (the f/x record was split between sterling and other currencies) in an amount over $45,000. The story of the supposed sterling lodgment was changed to a mix of sterling and punt to match the amount lodged, because at the exchange rate at the time it could not have been a round figure in sterling. However, using the exchange rate for amounts up to $2500 (or maybe 2500-5000, I'm not sure) (ok, the wrong rate, but there were very little fx transactions in the bank for higher amounts so the staff would have been used to using the lowest rate) the amount lodged equals $45,000 exactly. Thus the evidence points towards Bertie having made a dollar lodgement.

reminds me of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and their ridiculous numerology "clues". Theres more Ifs in there than your average alien cover-up.

[John83]

reminds me of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and their ridiculous numerology "clues". Theres more Ifs in there than your average alien cover-up.

Whatever about the dollar deposit theory, the fact is that Bertie claimed a sterling lodgement and changed his story when that was shown to be false.

And back on topic, I agree with those who say this story is nothing much. The guy got a politician to cut out some red tape. Woo. I did it a few weeks ago. Ipso facto, Seamus Brennan is corrupt!

[monutdfc]

reminds me of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and their ridiculous numerology "clues". Theres more Ifs in there than your average alien cover-up.

Ok, I'll take out the "ifs" and leave in the facts:
Fact 1: on the day Ahern claims to have lodged c.30k sterling the bank only took in about 2k sterling
Fact 2: on the same day the bank took in an amount in excess of $45k in other currencies
Fact 3: on the same day Ahern lodged a punt amount equal to c30k sterling or c$45k into his bank account. He claims this was a combination of sterling and punts converted to punts, mostly sterling.

All of the above facts can be clearly seen in the tribunal transcripts.

[jebus]

Yeah because if I disagree with you, Im just doing it for the sake of it right? Its not like I voted the
way I'm talking.

You gave them your third choice, if memory serves correct, and for reasons like, well Fine Gael would do the same

[GavinZac]

You gave them your third choice, if memory serves correct, and for reasons like, well Fine Gael would do the same

I voted for the underdog Socialist party candidate Mick Barry. Because of our great voting system, my vote was transfered to Fine Fail. I ranked them higher in preference than Fine Gael because I am satisfied with FF's past performance and more importantly I believe they are better placed to steer the country for a "soft landing", and certainly more so than a changed government whose over reliance on sensationalist anecdotes over hard facts and evidence inspired no confidence. I did state that even if FG could match up performance wise to FF, I would not vote for them for your reasons - perceived corruption or disenfranchisement, because of the turbulence electing an inexperienced government would cause at a time of finely balanced danger. I did not vote for Labour (because of their alignment with the "alternative government" but had they not so aligned themselves I may well ahve ranked them ahead of both treaty parties..

[pete]

Obviously I am not familiar with the way the civil service works but when I need a passport I naively get the form off the Passport office & make an application. If I was in a hurry I would queue up at the office itself. If it was my first application I would get local Garda to sign the form required. What possible reason I require the Minister for Finance to vouch for me?

Of course if this is normal practice does it mean Bertie gets passports for people he barley knows or as already suggested he a close friend of this Turner guy who just happened to give dollar donation (surely it should be in Sterling if going to be foreign currency?) all in the same year he looking for backers of controversial casino.

How many more coincidences...

[monutdfc]

This US/UK consortium looking to build a casino in Dublin calls themselves 'Sonas' - an Irish word we are all familiar with from those fun books we used to get at school. Then the promoter - presumably a UK passport holder - gets himself an Irish passport (to which he is entitled). Not unreasonably, they are giving their venture an Irish veneer, and not a crime.
This greening of the venture is facilitated by Ahern - hardly the actions of a man who is (supposedly) against the casino.

[osarusan]

This greening of the venture is facilitated by Ahern - hardly the actions of a man who is (supposedly) against the casino.

How did he "green" the venture?

[Bald Student]

Of course if this is normal practice does it mean Bertie gets passports for people he barley knows

At I guess I would say that he regularly gets passports for people he doesn't know at all.

[monutdfc]

How did he "green" the venture?

I didn't say he greened the venture, I said he facilitated the greening of the venture by facilitating Turner's passport application.

It is admittedly speculation as to why Turner wanted an Irish passport. Maybe he was travelling to the Middle East and preferred to travel there on an Irish passport rather than a UK passport (as Brian Keenan did for example)

[pete]

Slight off topic but I love Berties answer to queries about why he does not have a Tax Clearance Certificate...

From todays Irish Independent

"Taoiseach, just in relation to this complaint that has now gone into the Public Office Commission, can I ask you a question on your Tax Clearance Certificate issues. Have the Revenue Commissioners informed your advisers that they will have to wait for the Mahon Tribunal to report back before finalising your own situation?"

Mr Ahern looked directly at me and nodded his head twice. But he didn't say anything audible so I prompted him again, by saying, "Yes?".

In fairness, his response was pretty clear.

"Yes. That, that, that... the issue here is very, very simple. In tax law, the application certificate and the tax clearance are the same in law.

"And the position taken by the Revenue is that they can't finalise it until Mahon's work is finished. So, I mean, that's fine by me. I have no difficulty with that, I have no difficulty with the Revenue position."

Mr Ahern responded to another question on the matter and in total he used the words "finished" or "finalised" six times in relation to Mahon's impact on his dealings with the Revenue.

Even by the Taoiseach's regular standards, it was crystal clear.

Until the Mahon Tribunal had reported, the Revenue Commissioners couldn't sort out whether or not he had a tax liability.

Until his tax affairs were cleared up, the State ethics watchdog couldn't adjudicate on a complaint on the tax clearance certificate he produced in 2002.

Then yesterday the story changed -- completely.

Mr Ahern's response to Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore's quite similar question on his contacts with the Revenue Commissioners was quite astonishing.

"It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct -- I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it -- that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal," the Taoiseach said.

For E350k+ a year I would expect better communication. Once the lies start it is always difficult to keep track of them.

I believe you need a Tax Clearance Cert to do business with the state but you don't need one to run the country.

[noby]

That second quote you highlighted is brilliant.

[Lionel Ritchie]

"It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct -- I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it -- that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal," the Taoiseach said.

That second quote you highlighted is brilliant.

Somewhat disturbing report on Morning Ireland that, in the Dail record, this statement has been tarted up and straightened out and there is no reference to the debate in which it was made.

[dahamsta]

I heard that statement with my own ears on Newstalk, in a re-enactment obviously.