The Moriarty Tribunal has ended two days of highly controversial evidence concerning the Central Bank and the extent of its knowledge of the Ansbacher operation. One witness described the evidence of a former colleague, Terry Donovan as "hard to take", while his current boss denied all knowledge of what Mr Donovan told the Tribunal yesterday. At one point today, the chairman said that he was trying to avoid questions that made him sound like a parody of a John Gresham novel, but there has been plenty of drama from the firm that is the Central Bank.
Three key players have contradicted one another at the tribunal. Terry Donovan, who was the trainee, said that he had concerns about back to back loans - a feature of the Ansbacher scheme - when sent on an inspection of Guinness and Mahon in 1988. Ann Horan was his supervisor. She remembers nothing of his concerns. Moreover she is upset by the tone of his statement, which makes her look like she ignored them. However, it emerged that Ms Horan was inspecting Guinness and Mahon totally unaware that her predecessors had concerns over back-to-back loans.
Adrian Byrne was a superior to both of them at the time. Terry Donovan is now his deputy in banking supervision. Mr Byrne does not remember being told of the trainee's concerns either, and he said that he finds some of his recollections amazing. Such was the hostility generated by these witnesses and former colleagues that senior counsel for the tribunal, John Coughlan, asked one to accept that there was no suggestion of ill-will or maliciousness towards them by the other.
