Haughey and partner in business retract evidence

The owners of Celtic Helicopters, Ciarán Haughey and his business partner John Barnicle, have accepted that they received up to £180,000 from the proceeds of a controversial land sale in north Dublin in the mid-1990s, the Mahon tribunal has heard.

Both men are to be recalled to appear before the tribunal later this month after they retracted evidence that they had received only £10,000 each from the sale of their share of lands near Dublin Airport owned by a consortium known as Cargobridge.

The tribunal was told yesterday that Mr Haughey and Mr Barnicle had provided a new statement in which they accepted that they had received the balance of funds arising from the sale of their share of the Cargobridge lands in 1994.

Businessman Ben Dunne told the tribunal yesterday that he had been approached by Mr Barnicle in 1991 regarding a loan to purchase the lands.

He said he had been a regular client of Celtic Helicopters and that Mr Barnicle had said the men wanted the money to develop hangars for their helicopters.

Mr Dunne said he had agreed to provide the money, but had left it to his solicitor, Noel Smyth, to work out the mechanics of the deal. He said his concern was that his money would be safe if things went "pear-shaped".

He said that he had placed £110,000 on deposit with Bank of Ireland Private Banking to part-secure a loan of £185,000 which it provided to Mr Haughey and Mr Barnicle.

The tribunal has heard that in February 1994 the bank had said it was not prepared to extend the loan any further.

Mr Dunne said that around this time he was going through "personal difficulties" and was calling in loans from a number of people. He said that the people concerned were not in politics.

He said he did not know that the lands had been sold subsequently for £415,000.

Mr Dunne accepted that he received back £141,000 after the land was sold and the loan discharged - around £31,000 more than he had placed on deposit with the bank. However, he said he was not aware until this week that he had received back more than £110,000.

Mr Dunne strongly denied that he had received any profits from the land sale. He said that he had no involvement other than as a loan guarantor.