The inquiry by the Moriarty tribunal into the personal finances of the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, has been plagued by missing files. Yesterday, however, was the first day in which a witness told bluntly of shredding potentially important evidence.
To date it has been disclosed that the VHI file in relation to the special payment to the late Brian Lenihan is missing; that the files in relation to the Amiens Securities accounts in Guinness & Mahon bank are missing from the bank's archives; and that the records concerning the party leader's account are missing from the Fianna Fail archives.
Two former long-time private secretaries to Mr Haughey have now given evidence. One, Ms Eileen Foy, whose evidence has lasted a number of days, had extreme difficulty remembering important details concerning the running of the party leader's account. For example, she couldn't remember the names of any of the people who made contributions towards the medical fund for Brian Lenihan.
Ms Foy's evidence was that the cheque stubs and ledger in relation to the account were in her office up to the time of Mr Haughey's resignation in 1992.
She believes they were brought to Kinsealy around that time, and has said she went to Mr Haughey, in the wake of being contacted by the tribunal, to ask about the files. She was met with silence, she said.
Yesterday her former colleague and close friend, Ms Catherine Butler, who has an excellent memory, said she remembered helping Ms Foy bring a number of shopping bags filled with the leader's account files, out to Ms Foy's car in 1992.
She said Ms Foy contacted her last year to see if she could help her, Ms Foy, with remembering facts and dates to do with Mr Haughey's time in office. Ms Butler said she asked Ms Foy if she did not still have the leader's account records, and Ms Foy told her she had destroyed them. Ms Butler's evidence was put to Ms Foy. "That's just rubbish," she said.
Ms Butler also said she herself had kept an intimate private diary during her years working alongside Mr Haughey. Ms Foy had asked her could she not consult these diaries and Ms Butler said she would. However, she subsequently changed her mind and decided Ms Foy should rely on her own memory.
She then destroyed the diaries because, as she said, "I didn't want to get dragged into the tribunal." The diaries were destroyed before the tribunal made its first contact with her.
However, intriguingly it emerged during her evidence that Ms Butler had copied out the names and numbers in Mr Haughey's personal contacts book in his home in Kinsealy for use in her office, and that she still had this book. She said she would give the document to the tribunal.
The telephone book is important in one respect at least. Ms Butler, who first met Mr Haughey when she was 17 years old and who was Mr Haughey's personal assistant since 1981, was involved in keeping Mr Haughey's diary and arranging appointments.
One person she remembered telephoning on Mr Haughey's behalf, in order for Mr Haughey to speak to him, was Mr Padraig Collery. Mr Collery is a former Guinness & Mahon banker who was involved in the running of the Ansbacher deposits. He told the Mc Cracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal his contacts with Mr Haughey began in 1994, after the death of Des Traynor. However, Ms Butler's employment in the Taoiseach's office ended in 1992.
Ms Butler also recalled arranging phone calls between Mr Haughey and Mr Ben Dunne; Mr Noel Fox; Ms Joan Williams, Mr Traynor's private secretary; the late Jonathan Guinness, formerly of Guinness & Mahon bank; property developer Mr John Byrne; Larry Goodman of Goodman International and Dr Edmund Farrell, formerly of the Irish Permanent Building Society. She said there was "regular" contacts with Mr Goodman.
In the case of Mr Traynor, he would meet Mr Haughey as often as once a week, sometimes in the Taoiseach's department, but mostly out in Kinsealy on weekend mornings. The contacts had been happening since the early 1980s.