The former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey bought 130 acres at Ratoath, Co Meath, on March 28th, 1968, from Mr HansGunter Winkler. Mr Winkler is registered as having bought the lands just two months earlier.
According to the Land Registry files, Mr Haughey did not take out a mortgage when buying the lands. At the time his annual salary, as a TD as well as minister for finance, was £3,700.
The files publicly available at the Land Registry office do not disclose the prices paid.
Mr Haughey's address at the time of the purchase was Grangemore, Raheny, Co Dublin, a Victorian house on 45 acres. The Co Meath land was a stud farm or was later developed into a stud farm. Mr Winkler's address is listed as c/o Mooney & Co, a solicitors' firm in Kells, Co Meath, which no longer exists.
A year after he bought the Ratoath land, a company belonging to Mr Haughey, Abbeyville Ltd of Amiens Street, Dublin, bought 23 adjoining acres. That same year, and using the same company, he bought Abbeyville, a Georgian house on 250 acres in Kinsealy, Co Dublin.
In the same year, 1969, Mr Haughey sold his house and lands in Raheny, reportedly for more than he had paid for the Kinsealy house and lands.
In July 1970 the Abbeyville estate and the 23 acres in Co Meath were mortgaged to the Munster and Leinster Bank Ltd for £200,000. Mr Haughey had been dismissed from government in May 1970 as a result of the Arms Crisis. In July 1972, the charge on the 23 acres was cancelled. The folio in relation to Abbeyville for this period was not available yesterday.
The folio for the 130 acres in Co Meath shows that a charge for £247,000 was registered against the two Co Meath folios and the Abbeyville estate in July 1975. The owner of the charge was Northern Bank Finance Corporation Ltd. Mr Haughey's salary at the time, as a TD, was £5,091.
On the same date a charge for £179,000 was registered against the same three folios. The owner of this charge was Allied Irish Banks, and the entries in the Co Meath folios note that the charge has priority over that of the Northern Bank.
In August 1977, the lands in Co Meath were acquired by Rath Stud Farms Ltd, then at West Street, Drogheda, now with a registered address at Fair Street, Drogheda. The charges with Northern Bank and AIB were cancelled.
In April 1986 the lands were bought by J & M McCabe Properties Ltd, of Oriel Road, Collon, Co Louth.
In July 1975, Mr Haughey, using the company Larchfield Securities Ltd, bought the island of Innishvickillane, off Co Kerry. Land registry documents show no charge registered against this property. Larchfield Securities Ltd is also the owner of just under 12 acres at Ballyduboy, on the coast of Co Wexford.
In 1975, after Abbeyville Ltd had been put into liquidation, the lands at Kinsealy were transferred into the names of Mr Charles and Mrs Maureen Haughey. In 1990 the bulk of the lands was transferred to Mr and Mrs Haughey's children: Eimear (Mulhearn), Conor, Ciaran and Sean. No charges are listed against the property.