The Moriarty Tribunal sat in public again this morning for the first time since 22 December. Counsel for the Tribunal Mr Jerry Healy began by focusing on the tax liability to the Revenue Commissioners arising from the transfer of the Abbeville estate by Mr and Mrs Charles Haughey to their four children in March 1989. For the purposes of assessing stamp duty and capital acquisitions tax a value was sought for the property.
Initially, the Haughey family placed a value of £750,000 on the property for stamp duty purposes. However, when this valuation was considered by the valuation office capital acquisitions tax it was agreed to increase this figure to £1.2 million. Mr Healy referred the Tribunal back to information that in 1980 Mr Haughey had engaged in a property deal with the Gallagher Building group to buy a portion of the land at Abbeville.
He said that the agreement put a value of £35,000 an acre on the site. He said that on those prices the 227-acre estate at Abbeville should have been valued in 1989 at about £8 million. He said that there was evidence to suggest that officials within the Revenue Commissioners were aware of the 1980 deal and the question was why was this information not passed on the capital section who were responsible for making the assessment in the wake of the Abbeville transfer in 1989.
