The administration of the State-provided party leader's allowance is a matter for each political party, but the total control over it given to Mr Charles Haughey by Fianna Fail appears to have been highly unusual.
Mr Bertie Ahern, Mr Ray MacSharry and Mr Haughey were co-signatories of the account, with two signatures being necessary for a cheque to be valid. However only one of the three - Mr Haughey - appears to have had any control of the account. No specific cheque has been produced so far that was signed by Mr MacSharry, and it has been confirmed that after he was appointed a European commissioner in 1989, he signed no cheques at all.
Ms Eileen Foy, who administered the account, yesterday told the Moriarty tribunal that Mr Ahern pre-signed all cheques on which his name appeared. Ms Ahern's July evidence explained that after he signed the blank cheques, Ms Foy would arrange to have the payee and the amount filled in and the cheque would then be presented to Mr Haughey for signature.
Between February 1984 and February 1992, 1,615 cheques were drawn on this account. About £1.5 million passed through the account in these years, which Mr Ahern agreed at the tribunal was used to pay research staff and other expenses. However, it has since emerged that these expenses included payments for Charvet shirts, Coq Hardi meals, to Celtic Helicopters, to Mr and Mrs Haughey's personal accounts and to defray Mr Brian Lenihan's medical expenses.
During this period, Mr Ahern told the tribunal, just over £1 million was received from the Department of Finance for the leader's allowance. A further £500,000 was paid into the account from other sources.
A Fine Gael spokesman said yesterday that the party's equivalent payment is given by the leader straight to party headquarters, and that this has been the practice for at least 20 years. The cheques have to be signed by the general secretary or financial controller, and by one party trustee who is not an elected politician.
A curious feature of the Fianna Fail account was the number of cheques made out for round figures. In 1986, for example, when the party leader's allowance provided by the State was just under £200,000, £75,000 was withdrawn from the account in round figures, an unusual phenomenon for an account used to pay bills which typically come in uneven amounts of pounds and pence.
The party's former finance executive, Mr Sean Fleming TD, told the tribunal last July that in 1992, when Mr Albert Reynolds took over as party leader, he introduced, with Mr Reynolds's approval, a new system of administering the account. The account was moved to Bank of Ireland, Baggot Street, there was an annual audit and no cheques were pre-signed any more, he explained.