At the Moriarty Tribunal, Charles Haughey spent the morning answering questions about bank debts that by 1975 had reached £500,000. Mr Haughey took issue with an AIB memo which said that Charles Haughey warned them he could be a troublesome adversary. Mr Haughey agreed he had indicated to AIB at that time that they might use his influence to get new business. He said that he was talking exclusively about commercial influence. As a politician, he said, he was in the wilderness at that time.
The Tribunal is trying to form a picture of how much Charles Haughey knew about his financial affairs at this time, a few years after the Arms Trial, when he had been put on the backbenches of Fianna Fáil. Mr Haughey said that all his attention was directed towards rebuilding his political career. Des Traynor, a close personal friend, was looking after his finances. Charles Haughey's debts were huge and growing at a rate the AIB called a haemorrhage. There were several meetings and letters. The bank used hard language, Mr Haughey was contrite, but he refused to hand over his cheque book and the bank sanctioned further loans. The debt grew by £96,000 in that year. Mr Haughey's parliamentary salary at this time was £7000 but his assets reached £1.2 million yet none were used to clear his debts. A year later, according to an AIB memo Mr Haughey warned that he could be a very troublesome adversary. Today Charles Haughey said that his understanding was that the full phrase did not apply to him. But he agreed he was a troublesome customer.
His testimony is expected to continue for the rest of the week.
