Brennan queried at Flood on missing money

Mr Justice Feargus Flood said today he had difficulty understanding evidence of the movement of money between an account held…

Mr Justice Feargus Flood said today he had difficulty understanding evidence of the movement of money between an account held in Jersey and one in Dublin.

"At this point I can quite honestly say I do not understand, I hope someone can explain it to me," he said after questioning of builder Mr Tom Brennan.

Earlier, the tribunal heard evidence that out of £672,000 in an account controlled by builders Mr Brennan and Mr Brendan McGowan and their partner Mr John Finnegan, £404,000 ended up back in Ireland.

Mr Brennan said the remaining £268,000 was split between the three partners but said: "I don’t know anything about the 400 grand or what happened to it when it came back to Ireland."

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After intervention from Mr Brennan’s counsel, Mr Martin Hayden SC, counsel for the tribunal Mr Pat Hanratty SC said: "So we have £404,000 that went astray basically?"

"Is there anyone who would know," said Mr Hanratty.

Mr Justice Flood said: "It’s a remarkable sequence of events that nobody knows the answer."

Mr Hanratty then asked if Mr Brennan had added this to the list of things he was checking. He said that it was. Mr Hanratty said the tribunal could not sign off on this issue without the information being furnished.

After an interjection by Mr Hayden, Mr Hanratty referred to the interjection as "ludicrous".

After further interjections by Mr Hayden, Mr Hanratty referred to them as "incessant, meaningless and ludicrous interruptions".

Pádraig Collins

Pádraig Collins

Pádraig Collins a contributor to The Irish Times based in Sydney