THE Fine Gael trustee at the centre of the latest fund raising controversy cannot recollect any conversation seeking funds from Mr Larry Goodman in July.
This was the response given by the party general secretary, Mr Jim Miley, to Mr Goodman's claim yesterday that Fine Gael's chief fund raiser, Mr Sean Murray, phoned him three times between August 1994 and July 1995 seeking subscriptions.
Mr Goodman alleged in the Irish Independent that his telephone records showed Mr Murray called him on August 16th, 1994, in the autumn of 1994 and on July 19th, 1995.
Responding for Mr Murray - who could not be contacted yesterday - Mr Miley confirmed that two calls were made to Mr Goodman in the middle of 1994. The result of the first call was "a maybe", he added, and there was a follow up call in the autumn. No funds were received following these two calls, he said.
Mr Miley continued that several Fine Gael trustees and other independent people decided not to seek funds from Mr Goodman after July 1st last year to avoid any possible conflict of interest over continuing litigation. "I am not sure that Mr Murray was at that meeting but he was privy to that decision," he said.
The general secretary then stated that Mr Murray had no recollection of a telephone conversation with Mr Goodman on July 19th, 1995. "As far as Mr Murray recollects, he may have attempted to establish telephone contact with Larry Goodman in or around that time but a telephone conversation did not take place", Mr Miley added.
Meanwhile, the timing of one of Fine Gael's confirmed requests for funds from Mr Goodman is interesting in its own right. August 16th, 1994, was in the period between the publication of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry report at the end of July and the Dail debate one its findings at the end of August.
