Yea, you would guess it’s all over since Bertie Ahern resigned as Taoiseach. Well, it isn’t. And there was more explosive evidence. Didn’t hear about it? Quelle surprise. The media, read RTE, seem to be taking their eye off the ball.
Remember that whole B/T account thing? Remember how Ahern’s good friend Tim Collins swore in evidence that B/T stood for ‘Building Trust’? And remember how Ahern himself swore under oath that it stood for Building Trust (Q355)? And all those other St Luke’s workers who swore they knew of the existence of the account, but never asked about it?
Back in March, Blair Hughes and Ken McDonald, both of whom worked at the branch of PTSB that held the B/T account, swore in evidence that they always believed it stood for Bertie/Tim. They have no reason to lie.
Yesterday, two more workers from the branch, Lisa Jordan and Elizabeth Smyth swore in evidence that they also believed it stood for Bertie/Tim. Not only that, Lisa Jordan remembers Tim Collins coming in, and himself referring to it as the Bertie/Tim account. Here is what Ms Jordan swore:
The passbook for the B/T account was kept in this branch. I recollect on an occasion prior to Mr. Blair Hughes joining the branch in 1993, that Mr. Collins in a jocular manner when asking for the passbook for the B/T account referred to as the passbook for the Bertie Ahern/Tim account. I am certain that this was said in a jocular manner. I believed that in relation to the remark made by Tim Collins that it could have been heard by Elizabeth Smyth, Cathy Smith and Richard Buggy.
Smyth said:
I remember Tim Collins well. I would describe Mr. Collins as gregarious with a word for anybody. I would have seen him note only in the branch but around Drumcondra and in Kennedy’s public house where he would often be on a Friday evening with Mr. Ahern and other friends of Mr. Ahern.
It was my understanding from conversations in the branch, including some with Mr. Collins, that the B/T account was an account operated by Mr. Collins and that the B/T stood for Bertie and Tim. I recollect that Mr. Collins would ask for the passbook for the account, which was kept for safekeeping in the branch.
I do not recollect any reference to the B/T account as being a Building Trust account. I believed that the only connection of the B/T account to Fianna Fail was that Mr. Ahern was a minister and a Fianna Fail TD.
So. Four witnesses, with no apparent reason to lie, have directly contradicted the evidence of Bertie Ahern and Tim Collins in sworn evidence. Grainne Carruth directly contradicted her own and Bertie Ahern’s evidence, once physical evidence was produced.
The game is up.