Former taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey told the Moriarty Tribunal this afternoon that he had absolutely nothing to do with Celtic Helicopters, the company run by his son Mr Ciaran Haughey.
On the 12th day of his evidence in deposition Mr Haughey said that the running of the company was entirely in the hands of its two partners and that he had not used his position in or out of government to push business its way.
Mr Haughey was also unable to shed any light on the origin of £43,000 of an £80,000 investment used to set up the company in 1984 and 1985, although he said that the remaining £37,000 did come from close personal friends of his.
The tribunal was enquiring into transactions over the course of the company's history which were described by Mr John Coughlan SC for the tribunal, as being "shrouded in secrecy."
Neither was Mr Haughey able to help the tribunal with its inquiries into transactions surrounding the re-funding of Celtic Helicopters in 1992 through a Cayman-Ansbacher account in the Irish Intercontinental Bank in Dublin. This involved the transfer of £153,000 to Celtic Helicopters which in turn used the money to pay off a loan owed to the same bank.
There was also the repayment of £15,000 to one of the original investors, compromising the original £5,000 investment and £10,000 added value.
This too was repaid through an Cayman-Ansbacher account.
Mr Haughey denies having had any knowledge of why these monies were paid in such a manner and having any involvement in the running of, or financial affairs of Celtic Helicopters.
The only reason, Mr Haughey said, the tribunal was interested in the company at all was because one of the principals in the company was his son.
While he didn't want to go too far, Mr Haughey continued, he resented this.
Earlier in the day, it emerged that Mr Haughey and used the Fianna Fáil party leader’s fund account to forestall bankruptcy proceedings against Sligo-Leitrim TD Mr John Ellis, the Moriarty tribunal heard today.
According to evidence given by Mr Haughey by deposition, which was read into the public record this morning, Mr Ellis, at the end of 1989, was facing bankruptcy and was at risk of losing his Dáil seat.
This was, Mr Haughey told the tribunal, a "crisis of political life and death" for Fianna Fáil, which had only recently been returned to office in June of that year.
Consequently Mr Haughey gave Mr Ellis payments of £12,400 in December 1989 and £3,600 in March 1990 out of the party leaders fund.
It also emerged that Mr Haughey used the fund for two payments to the upmarket clothes shop Chavret in Paris, totalling nearly £15,000 as well as several cheques to the exclusive Le Coq Hardi restaurant in Dublin. Mr Haughey said he had no recollection of the events surrounding these payments.
Mr Haughey also said in evidence that the account was used for entertainment expenses at Abbeyville, his home in Kinsealy, Co Dublin. When dignitaries from the North or abroad were visiting, Mr Haughey in his official capacity entertained them there.
This, he said, was because Kinsealy was used between 1979 and 1991 as the Taoiseach’s official residence when Fianna Fáil was in power.
At the time, he said, he had blocked a government proposal to build an official residence for the Taoiseach in the Phoenix Park. He believed, he said, that the taxpayer at the time would not have tolerated the expense of the project when the economy was so depressed.