None of the payments to politicians or political parties by Dunnes
Stores was made on behalf of, or with the authority of, Mr Frank
Dunne or Mrs Margaret Heffernan, counsel for the two Dunnes Stores directors, told the tribunal. The two directors were not complicit in the making of any such payments and took steps to regularise the company's dealings with Mr Lowry and Celtic Helicopters Ltd and to recover the payments made to Mr Haughey, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC said.
In his submission Mr Hardiman said that Mr Ben Dunne had improperly opened and operated the Bank of Ireland Marino account used to pay Mr Michael Lowry's political expenses and Fine Gael.
The other directors of Dunnes Stores did not know about the account, which was operated "outside the normal books and records of the company". It was clear from the evidence that these payments were the sole responsibility of Mr Ben Dunne, Mr Hardiman said.
In relation to the business payments made to Mr Lowry, counsel said the uncontradicted evidence was that the directors other than Mr
Ben Dunne became aware of the dealings only after Mr Dunne was removed from executive responsibilities in 1993. Thereafter, he added, they proceeded to regularise the commercial relationship with
Mr Lowry and his company.
The payments to Mr Charles Haughey were also made on the sole initiative of Mr Ben Dunne, a fact which was borne out by all of the evidence and was uncontradicted by any person, including Mr Dunne and
Mr Haughey, he concluded.
"Mrs Margaret Heffernan attempted, with the concurrence of Mr
Frank Dunne, to discover the truth of this matter by taking up the matter directly with Mr Haughey and Mr Traynor. Mr Haughey's evidence to the tribunal amounts to a thorough confirmation of Mrs Heffernan's evidence on this point."
Mr Ben Dunne was the only director involved in the provision and securing of finance for Celtic Helicopters Ltd, the company owned by the former Taoiseach's son, Mr Ciaran Haughey, Mr Hardiman said.
"According to the evidence of Mr Ciaran Haughey, Mr Ben Dunne had stipulated that the arrangement he had put in place in this regard was to be discussed only with him."
In what he termed as a "striking parallel" with the evidence in relation to dealings with Mr Lowry and his company, the position with
Celtic Helicopters in relation to Dunnes Stores was regularised by Mr
Frank Dunne and Mrs Heffernan. When the group suffered a loss arising from dealings with Celtic Hilicopters, it successfully brought proceedings against the company.
Mr Hardiman said that in his evidence Mr Ciaran Haughey confirmed that a newspaper story published by the Sunday In- dependent during the sittings of the tribunal claiming that Dunnes Stores had provided a loan to Celtic Helicopters in 1995 was "wholly false".