The Moriarty Tribunal has identified payments totalling £8.5 million that appear to have been made to Charles Haughey between the years 1979 and 1996. This sum includes more than £500,000 of previously undisclosed funds, but does not include his salary as a politician or expenses he would have received in that role.
The tribunal has calculated that Ben Dunne, former Dunnes Stores Executive, who appeared as a witness today, gave the former Taoiseach more than £2 million. This is almost twice the sum Mr Dunne admitted to at the McCracken Tribunal. The tribunal has said it will now insist that Mr Haughey appears before it as a witness.
Tribunal lawyers said today that they had examined 16 sources through which Charles Haughey appeared to have received substantial payments. Among them £1.7 million held in an account at Guinness and Mahon and £1.4 million (sterling) in the Ansbacher accounts.
The tribunal heard details about some of those payments today when Mr Dunne took the stand. Mr Dunne was questioned in depth about one payment of £200,000 he made to Charles Haughey in 1990, a payment previously undisclosed. This was not the only payment made to Charles Haughey from Mr Dunne in 1990. The McCracken uncovered evidence of another £200,000 payment made in February of that year. This latest payment was made in November.
Ben Dunne said he had no idea how he started off intending to pay £700,000 pounds and ended up giving away more than twice that amount. He accepted that he authorised the latest payment of £200,000, routed through a Hong Kong company called Wytrex. But he said he does not remember doing it. He tried to explain it all by putting it in the context of the big money he was handling when at the helm of Dunnes Stores.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Coughlan said the tribunal keeps coming up with lots of money that no-one had told them about before. For all we know there could be more payments, he said to Mr Dunne, to which he got no reply. Mr Dunne ended by promising to return if he thought of anything else.
Even at this stage there is still room for revelations. The tribunal team has uncovered more money apparently held for Charles Haughey this time in an account at National Irish Bank. So far they have not received a waiver to examine these funds, and intend to issue subpoenas as a result.
Tribunal lawyers say there may be some overlap in the figures but they have endeavoured to avoid double accounting. They say the immediate source of funds in a lot of cases is Des Traynor but the ultimate source in every case is still not clear.
- Monies For The Benefit Of Charles Haughey Between 1979-1996, as listed at Moriarty Tribunal
TOTAL STG = £2,493,885
TOTAL IR£ = £6,148,593
