Bertie is now facing fresh controversy over driving licence
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Ms Larkin told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that Mr Ahern drove her to a bank in Dublin in January 1995 to make a £50,000 cash withdrawal of his funds from her account.
A government spokesman declined to comment on whether Mr Ahern had a driving licence at the time.
However, Mr Ahern has previously confirmed that he does not hold a driving licence due to his almost continuous use of a State car and driver for the last 20 years.
Even while he was out of ministerial office from 1995 to 1997, he had a car and chauffeur as Fianna Fail leader.
Ms Larkin told tribunal counsel Henry Murphy about Mr Ahern’s role in a £50,000 withdrawal from her account in January 1995.
Ms Larkin said she had phoned Philip Murphy at AIB’s branch in O’Connell Street in Dublin about this withdrawal and Mr Murphy had the money ready for her when she arrived at the bank.
“I got a lift to the bank” she recalled. “My recollection is that Bertie drove the car”.
When asked by tribunal counsel Henry Murphy why Mr Ahern didn’t collect the money himself, Ms Larkin said it was in her account.
“I don’t see how this changes the essence of events, the money was withdrawn and given back to Mr Ahern,” she said.
Ms Larkin said she could not be specific whether the £50,000 cash she withdrew was in a bag or in a parcel. She carried it out to the car and they both returned to St Lukes with the money, she said.
Mr Ahern is understood to have first got a driving licence in the 1970s but he allowed it to lapse over the following decades. This led to a minor controversy in 2003 after then Transport Minister Seamus Brennan brought in a new Transport law requiring drivers to always carry valid licences.
“I don't know what this kerfuffle is about. I could have used the (driving licence) amnesty back in the late 70s, but didn't,” said Mr Ahern then.
Yesterday, Ms Larkin told the tribunal that she couldn’t recall what happened after she and Mr Ahern brought back the £50,000 to St Lukes. The money belonged to him, having been transferred to Ms Larkin's account for the purpose of renovating his rented house in Drumcondra the previous month.
Tribunal counsel Henry Murphy asked: “Your memory goes blank after going back to St Lukes?
“What did you do at two minutes past nine last Friday”, Ms Larkin riposted.
Her solicitor Hugh Millar said the suggestion that Ms Larkin’s memory went blank was disrespectful.
When Mr Murphy asked again what happened to the £50,000, Ms Larkin said that her belief was that it went into the safe at St Lukes.
Tribunal Chairman Judge Alan Mahon asked that if there was a discussion between Ms Larkin and Mr Ahern about the money.
Ms Larkin said the money was to be spent on the house. She said she wasn’t aware that Mr Ahern said that he had bought stg£30,000 out of this £50,000 with the intention of giving it to Mr Wall.
