Ex-Taoiseach's £300,000-a-year lifestyle `unacceptable'

Celtic Helicopters received £100,000 of a £180,000 payment from Mr Ben Dunne. Mr Haughey's son Ciaran is a major shareholder in Celtic Helicopters

The McCracken tribunal heard evidence that the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, had outgoings averaging £300,000 per annum during the years 1989 to 1991.

The tribunal, which reported in August 1997, concluded that Mr Ben Dunne gave Mr Haughey £1.3 million during the years 1987 and 1991. At £300,000 per year, the money from Mr Dunne would have lasted Mr Haughey for just more than four years.

Mr Justice McCracken, in his report, said he considered it "quite unacceptable" that Mr Haughey should have accepted £1.3 million from Mr Dunne. "It is even more unacceptable that Mr Charles Haughey's whole lifestyle should be dependent on such gifts, as would appear to be the case."

How Mr Haughey managed to support his lavish lifestyle for more than 30 years, is likely to become more clear over the coming months as the Moriarty tribunal, established in the wake of the McCracken tribunal, in September 1997, begins to hear evidence in public.

It is already known that the founder of the Doyle Hotel group, the late Mr P.V. Doyle, kept overdraft facilities amounting to £170,000 with Guinness & Mahon bank, which may have been used for the benefit of Mr Haughey. When Mr Doyle died in 1988, the Doyle group paid off debts of £152,000 due on the accounts, the money later being recouped from Mr Doyle's estate. At the time Mr Des Traynor, who organised Mr Haughey's personal finances, indicated the debts were linked to Mr Haughey.

In January of last year the financier, Mr Dermot Desmond, revealed he had made a number of payments to Mr Haughey since 1994, but not before that date. He refused to give any further details but said he would co-operate with the Moriarty tribunal if contacted.

Mr Desmond also revealed he had made payments totalling about £500,000 to members of Mr Haughey's family and companies associated with the Haugheys, in the period 1987 to 1995. These payments were by way of loans, commercial advances, investments and gifts. On at least one occasion - an investment of £275,000 in Feltrim Mining plc - a handsome profit was made. Mr Haughey's son, Conor was a founding director of Feltrim.

The former property tycoon, Mr Patrick Gallagher, in an interview with the Sunday Business Post in February of last year, said his company placed a £375,000 deposit on Mr Haughey's lands in Kinsealy in 1979, and forfeited the amount when the group, which had its headquarters in the Cayman Islands, collapsed in 1982.

Mr Gallagher said he and his father, the late Mr Matt Gallagher, along with other leading businessmen, provided funds to Mr Haughey to allow him to concentrate on his political work. He did not name these other businessmen.

Mr Haughey had outstanding loans with Merchant Banking for more than £15,000 when the Gallagher Group, of which it was part, collapsed. The liquidator, Mr Patrick Shortall, in his report, said the bank had loans on its books which were in fact gifts, but did not specify that Mr Haughey's belonged to this category. Mr Haughey's loans were repaid, on demand from the liquidator, and the Moriarty tribunal has been informed of this.

One of the most successful property development companies in the State, Carlisle Trust - which again has links with the Cayman Islands - is known to have been in contact with the Moriarty tribunal. Carlisle Trust is owned by the Kerry-born multimillionaire, Mr John Byrne, and his wife Ciara, and has built a number of Dublin office blocks, including O'Connell Bridge House. A large part of its shareholding is held by Ansbacher (Cayman) Ltd, the Cayman Islands bank which was formerly a subsidiary of Guinness & Mahon bank, Dublin.

Mr Traynor was a director of Carlisle and it was revealed in a High Court case last year involving Dunnes Stores and the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, that a £180,000 payment made by Mr Ben Dunne in 1992, ended up in a Carlisle Trust account in the Bank of Ireland, Rotunda branch, Dublin.

This payment is now being investigated by the Moriarty tribunal. It is known that Celtic Helicopters received £100,000 of the £180,000, and Mr Traynor received the rest. Mr Haughey's son, Ciaran is a major shareholder in Celtic Helicopters. The £180,000 is one of three payments totalling approximately £500,000 which Mr Dunne does not recall having made and which he does not think were intended for Mr Haughey, but which share "characteristics" similar to those investigated by the McCracken tribunal.

The names of others who made payments to Mr Haughey are likely to emerge over the coming months. The extent to which Mr Haughey profited from business dealings he engaged in, or Mr Traynor engaged in on his behalf, may also become clearer from the tribunal's work.

Mr Haughey qualified as an accountant in the 1940s and soon afterwards set up an accountancy firm in partnership with Mr Harry Boland. He was first elected to the Dail in 1957 and left his accountancy practice in 1966.

Mr Haughey was appointed minister for justice in 1961 and served in a number of cabinet positions between then and 1979, when he became Taoiseach for the first time. He retired from politics in 1992.

In March 1968 Mr Haughey bought 130 acres in Ratoath, Co Meath. According to the files in the Land Registry Office, no mortgage was taken out on the lands. At the time Mr Haughey's salary, as minister for finance, was £3,700.

Mr Haughey's address at the time was Grangemore, Raheny, Co Dublin, a Victorian house on 45 acres. The Co Meath land was a stud farm or was later developed as a stud farm.

In 1969 and using a company called Abbeyville Ltd, of Amiens Street, Dublin, Mr Haughey bought 23 acres adjoining the Ratoath land. In that same year and using the same company, he bought Abbeville, a Georgian house on 250 acres, in Kinsealy, Co Dublin. He reportedly sold his Raheny house for more than he paid for Abbeville.

In July 1970 the 23 acres and the Abbeville estate were mortgaged to the Munster and Leinster Bank Ltd for £200,000. Mr Haughey had been dismissed from the government in May 1970 as a result of the arms crisis.

In May 1972 the charge on the 23 acres was cancelled. It is not clear from the registry office records what happened in relation to the charge on Abbeville.

In July 1975 two charges were registered against the Co Meath lands and the Abbeville estate. One charge for £247,000 was registered in the name of Northern Bank Finance Corporation. A second for £179,000 was registered in the name of Allied Irish Banks and had priority over the Northern Bank Finance Corporation charge, according to the Meath portfolios.

That same month Mr Haughey bought the island of Innishvickillane, off Co Kerry, using a company called Larchfield Securities Ltd. No charge was registered. Mr Haughey's TD's salary in 1975 was £5,091.