The Moriarty tribunal turned up a number of new transactions yesterday not hitherto revealed in its investigations of funds linked to former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey, including lodgements totalling £580,774 with National Irish Bank.
The lodgements referred to a personal account of £5,317, a business account of £420,990 and an "Abbeville savings" account in the amount of £154,466.
Counsel for the tribunal Mr Jerry Healy also drew attention to a £50,000 cheque drawn on the Rotunda branch of the Bank of Ireland, on February 18th, 1987 by Skellig Investments, a company owned by Kerry businessman Mr John Byrne, a close associate of the former Taoiseach. This unlimited company was incorporated in 1981 by Mr Byrne "for non-trading purposes connected with horse racing", he said.
Mr Byrne had no recollection of drawing the £50,000. In the event, he said he would have given it to Mr Des Traynor, the former Taoiseach's financial adviser and managing director of Guinness & Mahon. "But he can't indicate what it was for," Mr Healy told the tribunal.
Neither could he recollect hearing of Amiens Securities (a vehicle used by Mr Traynor for the operation of Cayman accounts) until informed of its existence by the tribunal.
"Why should John Byrne write a cheque on the account of a non-trading company and why should he hand it to Des Traynor?" he asked. And why, ultimately was the cheque lodged to an account "operated for purposes connected with the conferring of considerable benefits to Charles Haughey?"
There was a new development with regard to the fund set up to discharge the medical expenses of the late Mr Brian Lenihan TD. Dr Eamon de Valera, the former head of the collapsed Irish Press Newspapers group and current chairman of Irish Press plc, had informed the tribunal he had been approached by Mr Dan McGing, chairman of ACC bank (and a former Irish Press chairman) to request a donation for the Lenihan fund some time in 1989.
Dr de Valera had made a payment of £10,000 to Coopers & Lybrand who had been auditors to the Irish Press. Mr McGing had been a partner in that firm, Mr Healy explained.
Mr McGing had been in touch to say that PriceWaterhouse Coopers was in the course of making its own searches with a view to determining how the transaction was treated in the Irish Press accounts and whether it was routed to the fund or otherwise used to discharge Mr Lenihan's medical expenses.
In addition, the former Fianna Fail fundraiser, Mr Paul Kavanagh, had come up with a list of people who had been approached to contribute to the Lenihan fund. This might indicate the actual sums contributed, he suggested.
The tribunal also turned its attention to Feltrim Mining, the exploration company set up by the former Taoiseach's son, Mr Conor Haughey, which was floated on the Irish stock exchange in April 1988. Mr Conor Haughey was managing director of Feltrim between 1988 and 1993 when he resigned "and appears to have no further involvement with the company".
Stockbroker Mr Dermot Desmond said he had invested in the company and made a £55,000 loan to Feltrim in mid-1991, said Mr Healy.
He said he had made further investments subsequent to the takeover in mid-1993 and that he had emerged with "a sizeable profit".
The original capital to float the company was put up by Mr James Stafford and Mr Emmet O'Connell, who had years of experience in the exploration industry. They had invested £100,000 each. By 1990 the profit and loss account was £2 million in the red and £3.5 million the following year.
A good deal of capital had been provided to this company, said Mr Healy, on the basis that would suggest the investors saw themselves as contributing to the Haughey family and not making hard-nosed investments.