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Irish Daily Mail Dunne it’s friday! CAN ANT-MAN MEASURE UP? YOUR ENTERTAINMENT PULLOUT FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2015 €1(60p NI) YOU LIAR Bertie Ahern yesterday told Banking Inquiry he didn’t have ‘much interaction’ with property developers. The pictures below clearly show the truth... and illustrate his contempt for both the Oireachtas AND the Irish people By Ferghal Blaney and Kevin Keane Developer links: Bertie with Gayle Killilea and Seán THE Irish Daily Mail Dunne. And today exposes the brazen below, from left, with Bernard dishonesty of Bertie McNamara, Ahern’s self-pitying evi- Johnny Ronan dence at the Banking and Seán Inquiry. Mulryan As the disgraced former taoiseach sought to blame everyone but himself for the crash, which ruined the lives of so many, he repeatedly denied that he had fuelled the prop- erty boom because he was too close to developers and builders. REPORTS AND ANALYSIS PAGES 6, 7, 8, 9 And in testimony reminiscent of St Peter before the cock crowed, Mr Ahern even denied that he had a ‘close rela- tionship’ with developers, insisting he personally never had ‘much interaction’ with them. But as our pictures show, the truth – as so often is the case with Mr Ahern – is the exact opposite. The ex-Fianna Fáil leader, who was famously ruled to have lied on oath to the Mahon Tribunal, was friendly with a number of the biggest developers of the entire Celtic Tiger period. He was particularly close to Seán Dunne, the former ‘Baron of Ballsbridge’ and was invited to the builder’s €1.5mil- lion Italian wedding to former gossip Turn to Page 6 Page 6 BERTIE AT THE INQUIRY Irish Daily Mail, Friday, July 17, 2015 Dunner, you and me go way back Continued from Page One Bertie hug: The columnist Gayle Killilea. Mr Dunne, former who is being pursued through the And now. Let taoiseach with courts by NAMA, was a vocal and developer prominent supporter of Mr Ahern before and after he was forced from Johnny Ronan office in 2008. me quote that in Dublin in 2010 But Mr Ahern was also friendly with onetime giants of the property world such as Bernard McNamara, Seán great leader... Mulryan and Johnny Ronan. He was even reportedly on the guestlist for the wedding of Mr Dunne to Ms Killilea in 2002 aboard Aristotle eh, meself Onassis’s former yacht Christina O. He didn’t attend but reportedly called Mr Dunne during the wedding Bertie Ahern plagia- speeches to tell him, ‘Dunner, you rised himself at the and I go back a long way. I wish I Inquiry yesterday. could be there. I’m sorry I couldn’t The former taoi- come but I would have been more seach’s autobiogra- trouble to you than I’d be worth.’ phy – co-written with Mr Dunne and Ms Killilea were also US academic Richard among the handful of guests who wit- nessed what was considered, at the Aldous – listed a time, to be one of Mr Ahern’s finest series of his eco- moments – when he addressed the nomic achievements joint US Houses of Congress on when it was pub- April 30, 2008. lished in 2009. In a newspaper interview to pro- After it’s launch, it mote his 2009 autobiography, Mr became a bestseller at home, but it Ahern heaped praised on Mr Dunne failed to light up international markets. and described the developer’s Nonetheless the tome, entitled Bertie ill-fated plans for a diamond-shaped skyscraper in Ballsbridge as ‘imagi- Ahern: the Autobiography, won him the native’. He added: ‘He’s lost a lot of chance to make a pitch at rehabilitation money on it. Seán’s just one of the in TV and radio interviews. guys. I know a lot of them, like [Jim- But yesterday chunks of it were regur- my] Flynn, [Noel] O’Flaherty and gitated in his Opening Statement. the Baileys.’ Somehow it seemed to chime with Mr Elaborating on his relationship with Ahern’s former claim on his website and the Baileys, he added: ‘You meet the in his official Government CV, that he Baileys at Croke Park every time you go there. You can’t avoid getting a had attended the London School of Eco- slap on the back going in from them. nomics, which he never did. Most of these guys lost their shirt. I Instead, he did a short course in book- feel sorry for them. You know, they keeping at the College of Commerce, employed 270,000 people in the Irish Rathmines in Dublin. economy.’ At the conclusion of his opening state- Meanwhile, the former taoiseach’s ment yesterday, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty told him: ‘Maybe you’ll start by explaining why parts of your opening ‘It rained in Galway statement to the Banking Inquiry are so we had a tent’ taken directly, word for word, from your autobiography?’ Bertie replied ‘Because that was my relationship with Johnny Ronan was position when I did my autobiography so ‘close’ that the pair were pictured and I haven’t changed the hugging at the opening of the Con- position. I’m consistent.’ vention centre on Dublin in 2010. Asked if he hadn’t reflected on those Much of the questioning at yester- day’s inquiry centred on Mr Ahern’s positions as time passed, he replied: ‘I relationship with developers. haven’t changed my position.’ In particular, committee members focused on the Galway Tent, where many wealthy builders paid thou- mara and Michael O’Flynn along with opers] but I tended to have an on his watch as taoiseach, which his admiration for his successors, sands of euro to attend functions Ken MacDonald, of Hooke and Mac- official present,’ Mr Ahern added. worsened structural weaknesses in including the current Fine Gael- alongside Fianna Fáil politicians Donald, one of the country’s leading Mr Mulryan’s company Ballymore the economy, leading to the historic Labour Government, for showing ‘com- including Mr Ahern. auctioneering firms. Estates donated more than €7,000 to downturn. mitment and courage,’ in following When Labour’s Senator Susan The memo showed that the issues Fianna Fáil between 2005 and 2006. ‘Of course that saddened me and I through on bailout commitments. O’Keeffe asked him what people had of ‘first-time buyers,’ the ‘rental And in 2011, Mr Ahern made a series He also said the Construction got for the price of their ticket into sector’ and ‘social and affordable of trips to China with the developer Industry of Ireland was a particularly the tent, he tried to laugh it off. housing’ were supposed to be on the at the invitation of the Ireland China ‘Of course, I made strong lobby group whose represent- ‘Well, it nearly always rained in Gal- agenda. Co-operation Council. atives he met on many occasions. way, so at least there was a tent,’ Mr Mr Ahern said: ‘That particular one At the time, Mr Mulryan was some mistakes’ ‘The CIF was like the IFA [Irish Ahern replied, laughing. was about affordable housing. involved in negotiations with the Farmers Association], anytime there Senator O’Keeffe said she was They were advocating that they authorities there as he sought to was anything around, they were in,’ being serious, and asked again. had a social conscience, very little buy in to the rapidly growing Jiang- wish the recession did not happen,’ Mr Ahern said. ‘Food, a bit of fun, some people happened out of it. bei industrial zone. he told the inquiry. He was asked by Fine Gael’s Kieran even met their wives,’ he said. ‘I could understand how it could Mr Ahern admitted there was an He praised the ‘Trojan work’ of Irish O’Donnell what he believed his main Ms O’Keeffe was clearly not satis- look [to have a meeting with devel- ‘over-reliance’ on the property sector people in recent times and expressed mistakes or regrets from his time in fied with this reply either, prompting her to say, ‘I didn’t know Fianna Fáil was running a dating agency.’ Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins challenged Mr Ahern on his ‘close ‘I’m sorry for the suicide remark... but I was trying to be positive’ relationship with developers’ but the former taoiseach replied sharply: ‘I didn’t have a close relationship for a BERTIE Ahern yesterday said that he of Trade Unions conference in Bun- mostly been ‘a sharp intake of when things were very tight. I was start’, before going on to say that it regretted stating in the summer of doran, Co. Donegal, when he told breath among other delegates’. Mr always giving a positive message.’ was always his policy to get more 2007 that he was surprised his eco- delegates he didn’t share the anal- Ahern was reminded of his remarks The former Fianna Fáil leader houses built. nomic critics didn’t commit ysis that ‘we should get up every by Pearse Doherty yesterday, who remarked rhetorically: ‘If I was However, Mr Higgins then told the inquiry that research produced to suicide. day and try to talk ourselves asked how he reconciled this with going out giving a negative or the inquiry earlier this year by aca- He told the Banking Inquiry: ‘I had down’. his opening statement that he was downbeat message, then what demic Elaine Byrne had shown that two very good friends who died He referred to ‘merchants of open to receiving contrary views hope was there for the rest of us? I of €1.8million donated to Fianna Fáil from suicide in the Nineties. I should doom’ and then remarked: ‘Sitting during his time as taoiseach.
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