Lawyers for the Moriarty Tribunal have said that Fianna Fáil withheld crucial information relating to a political donation ahead of reports in the media late last week. The Taoiseach is to be called before the Tribunal this week to assist it with inquiries into the £100,000 payment from the property developer, Mark Kavanagh, to Charles Haughey.
Mr Kavanagh has begun giving evidence and is being brought through his written statement to the tribunal, the details of which were revealed this morning. He said that his decision to donate £100,000 to Fianna Fáil just prior to the 1989 General Election was a hard-headed business one. Mr Kavanagh said that his company was spending £120m developing the Dublin's International Financial Services Centre. They wanted Fianna Fáil to win the election, because Fianna Fáil was committed to the success of the IFSC.
The Tribuanl lawyers said that the Fianna Fáil TD, Sean Fleming, who is a former financial controller of the party, was asked why the Tribunal had not been told, that four years ago queries were made about this payment. They said that Mr Ahern would be dealing with queries from them this week. He is to be asked to explain his role in inquiring into the contributions from Mr Kavanagh, which were not accounted for in Fianna Fáil books. The Taoiseach was asked to do so by Eoin Ryan Senior in 1996. Mr Ryan does not recall what figure was involved. It is now clear that new evidence is coming to the Tribunal almost on a daily basis.
John Coughlan, acting for the Tribunal, outlined even more payments to Charles Haughey today, including yet more money from Ben Dunne. A payment of £50,000 from Michael Smurfit to Fianna Fáil in 1989, which was routed through the Ansbacher accounts, is also to be examined. Much of this evidence has come about as a result of a second, anonymous, list of donors kept by the Fianna Fáil Party at the time.
In relation to the payment of £100,000 from Mark Kavanagh, Mr Kavanagh told the tribunal that he and his partners in the Customs House Docks Development agreed to give £75,000 of the money to Fianna Fáil and £25,000 to the Brian Lenihan fund. Mr Kavanagh delivered the entire sum to Charles Haughey at Kinsealy, on the morning of the general election in June 1989. The £25,000 was made out in a cheque to Fianna Fáil and the rest made up in three bank drafts made out to cash.
