Smurfit rejects finding on £60,000 donation

Business response:Businessman Michael Smurfit has rejected a tribunal finding that he should have known that Charles Haughey would use a £60,000 donation for himself.

The Jefferson Smurfit Foundation, operated by the company of which Mr Smurfit was chief executive, gave the money to Fianna Fáil in 1989, an election year.

Accountant Des Traynor, who managed Mr Haughey's finances, handled the payment and the politician used the cash for himself, the tribunal found.

Mr Justice Michael Moriarty's report argues that Mr Smurfit was either indifferent to what happened to the money, or "ought to have apprehended" that it was destined for Mr Haughey.

But Mr Smurfit said yesterday that he firmly rejected "the finding of the tribunal that I was indifferent to, or should have been aware of, the possibility that the political donation made to Fianna Fáil by the Jefferson Smurfit Foundation would be used for Mr Haughey's personal benefit".

At about the same time, half of a €100,000 donation from a company controlled by developer Mark Kavanagh, which was intended for Fianna Fáil and Brian Lenihan, ended up being used by Mr Haughey.

Mr Kavanagh is out of the country this week and was not available for comment yesterday.

Of the other figures and companies named in the report, AIB Bank, which wrote off a £1.14 million loan to the former taoiseach, refused to comment.

Accountancy firm Deloitte also refused to comment. It took over Mr Haughey's business, Haughey Boland, (set up with Henry Boland), and as a result managed a service that paid various bills on Mr Haughey's behalf.Financier Dermot Desmond, who made a number of contributions to Mr Haughey after his retirement from politics in the 1990s, could not be contacted for a comment yesterday.