Celia cash will help bankroll by-election campaign
Delegates voting tonight to choose the Fianna Fail candidate in Dublin Central will hear that the campaign will be bankrolled by a repayment by Bertie Ahern's former partner Celia Larkin of a €40,000 loan.
The former Taoiseach's older brother Maurice is tipped to win the nomination ahead of Dublin City Councillor Mary Fitzpatrick in a showdown at 9pm in the Skylon Hotel.
But last night the third contender, Dublin City Councillor Tom Stafford, was confident he would prevail.
Ms Larkin took out a €40,000 mortgage with the Irish Nationwide Building Society to repay a secret loan that was revealed last year in the Mahon Tribunal.
"Celia borrowed £30,000 from the BT constituency account in 1993 to buy a house, it has since been repaid, and that money should be available to help pay the party's expenses in the by-election," said a source at St Luke's. Although Maurice Ahern did not respond to calls yesterday, both Tom Stafford and Mary Fitzpatrick said they had not heard about Ms Larkin's repayment of the loan and refused to discuss it.
But other sources at St Luke's said that a windfall of €40,000 into the constituency bank account would be a great help in the by-election campaign.
Yet the financial windfall is unlikely to sweeten the poisonous relations between Ms Fitzpatrick, a daughter of the former Fianna Fail TD for the constituency Dr Dermot Fitzpatrick, and the constituency organisation set up by Bertie Ahern.
Suspicion
Ms Fitzpatrick didn't consult either of her rivals when she issued a statement of her intention to seek the Fianna Fail nomination last week.
The simmering mutual suspicion burst into the public arena after the June 2007 general election where Ms Fitzpatrick polled double the first preference votes cast for Cyprian Brady, who was elected on Bertie Ahern's transfers.
Ms Fitzpatrick and her supporter's accused the then Taoiseach's team in Dublin Central of conspiring against her to get Cyprian Brady elected.
Sources in St Luke's say that whoever Bertie Ahern wants to get the nomination will win the vote tonight -- but anything can happen.
Ms Larkin couldn't be reached for comment last night. She no longer has any apparent involvement in the St Luke's constituency organisation.
- Sam Smyth
