Office used after Traynor

Transactions continued to be conducted on the Ansbacher accounts from the Cement Roadstone Holdings offices at Fitzwilliam Square…

Transactions continued to be conducted on the Ansbacher accounts from the Cement Roadstone Holdings offices at Fitzwilliam Square after Mr Des Traynor's death in May 1994, the tribunal heard.

Ms Joan Williams, secretary to the former CRH chairman, confirmed she wrote a letter from the offices in December 1994 requesting the drawing of a £20,000 cheque on an Ansbacher account for payment to Mr Charles Haughey's bill-paying service. This was two months after Mr Traynor's successor, Mr Tony Barry, had moved into the offices.

Asked whether the staff of CRH would have been aware that Ansbacher business was being conducted from their premises, Ms Williams replied: "I have no idea. I just presume that they knew Mr Traynor worked with Cayman accounts."

She said the letter was part of a "tidying up" operation conducted by Mr Padraig Collery after Mr Traynor's death. In writing the letter, she would have taken instructions from Mr Collery.

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Ms Williams said she believed the cheque would have been collected by a CRH driver and delivered to the Fitzwilliam Square offices for collection by Mr Collery.

As part of the "tidying up" operation, Mr Collery removed Mr Traynor's computer and Ansbacher files from the offices over a weekend. This would have taken place about six or eight weeks before Mr Barry moved in, said Ms Williams.

She said she had "no idea" whether Mr Barry knew that Mr Collery, a person who had no connection with CRH, had keys for the premises and was using the offices out of hours. She said: "I just assumed that the powers that be certainly knew . . . I would have assumed Mr Collery would have spoken to them."

Asked did she think of bringing it to anyone's attention, she replied: "I assumed that they knew. I mean it wasn't as if it was a huge organisation in Fitzwilliam Square."

Ms Williams said she had worked for CRH's company secretary before Mr Barry moved in. Asked would he have known Mr Collery was using the offices, she said: "I would think he probably knew, yeah."

Joe Humphreys

Joe Humphreys

Joe Humphreys is an Assistant News Editor at The Irish Times and writer of the Unthinkable philosophy column