New information showed additional sums totalling £60,000 had been contributed to the fund for the late Mr Brian Lenihan's medical expenses in 1989, £10,000 of which had been donated by Dr Eamon de Valera through the Irish Press group, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said further information had become available about the leader's allowance account and funds raised for medical expenses of Mr Lenihan.
Dr de Valera approached the tribunal with information about a donation. The tribunal also received information on contributions by others. Mr Paul Kavanagh gave evidence in October concerning his efforts to raise the funds. Mr Kavanagh had made available a document.
"It is a document which he put together at the time of the fundraising initiative containing the names of a number of individuals intending to be approached in connection with the fund and it also contains an amount of information which would seem to suggest that certain sums of money were either collected from or likely to be collected from certain individuals," Mr Healy said.
"Mr Kavanagh has informed the tribunal that the list of names on the document were, with the exception of one man, Mr Leo Cafolla, a list of supporters of Fianna Fail and he thinks that the manuscript list of names on the right-hand side of the document in his handwriting is a record of what he expected to raise, as opposed to what he did raise, from the individuals concerned." The tribunal had made contact with some of those on the list and established that some had made contributions to the fund.
The list was shown on a screen. The typed names were Mr Dan McInerney; Mr Larry Goodman; Mr S.F. Rafique; Mr Michael Behan; Mr Fred DanzeAgua; Mr Leo Cafolla; Mr Seamus Tully; Mr Tadgh Gallagher; Mr Edmund A. Farrell; Mr Oliver Barry; Mr Gus Kearney; Mr John Horgan; Mr J.P. McManus; Mr John Magnier.
Two names were crossed out on the list: Mr Ben Dunne and Mr Oliver Murphy. In handwriting at the side of the list were names with a number beside them. These were Farrell, 40; Tully, 20; Kearney, 10; Atron, 10; Magnier, 20.
Mr Healy said evidence suggested the total of the debits to the leader's allowance fund for the expenses for Mr Lenihan's medical care were £83,197.56 made between June 22nd, 1989 and February 13th, 1991. In 1989, the excess of funds in the leader's allowance account over and above the payment from central funds was £220,000. The only payments into that account were the payments from the Exchequer, with the funds lodged in connection with the medical expenses.
The tribunal was anxious to establish whether the additional information from Dr de Valera that a payment of £10,000 was made by the Irish Press; a sum of £20,000 contributed by Mr Seamus Tulley; £20,000 by Mr John Magnier; and £10,000 by Mr Nicholas Fitzpatrick, through a company he operated called Atron, enabled the tribunal to decide whether the £60,000 formed part of the £220,000 excess in the leader's allowance account.