Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey has told the Moriarty Tribunal that he thinks it would be legitimate for a group of people to come together to support a particular politician financially because they believe in what he or she is doing. His comments came during intense questioning about his debts in the late seventies and how those debts were paid off. Mr Haughey once again denied any knowledge of how much of those debts were discharged.
Mr Haughey said that he was quite sure that in modern history it had happened time and time again that groups of friends had come together for purely altruistic purposes to alleviate the financial difficulties of a politician they admired. Mr Haughey said that in his opinion there was nothing wrong with this. When asked should such financial support be made public. Mr Haughey said not necessarily. When asked was there not a risk that such a person would be beholden, even subconsciously, to the interests of those people, Mr Haughey said that did not follow.
