Despite all that has been learned during the past three years about the personal finances of Mr Charles Haughey, he still has a capacity for indignation over slights made a quarter of a century ago.
In his third day giving evidence, the former Taoiseach was again asked about his dealings with AIB during the 1970s. Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, is reading out documents from Mr Haughey's file with the bank and asking the former Taoiseach if he remembers any of the details.
In the main, Mr Haughey has not been able to remember details of the events described in the documents, although he has not contested the situation outlined, which is that of a troublesome customer running up a huge overdraft.
One memo dealt with yesterday concerned a meeting in 1976 between Mr Haughey and senior bank officials during which there was discussion about a sewer which had been built through his Kinsealy lands. Mr Haughey told the bankers he'd had discussions with the county council about getting the scheme expanded. This would have increased the value of his land.
After receiving permission from the chairman to do so, Mr Haughey made a few remarks about the sewerage scheme. Unlike his dealings with AIB, his memory of the affair was quite clear. This was because of the "enormity of the unfairness" of the incident.
Some neighbours living at the edge of his estate needed a sewerage system, he said, and he was approached by the council. Because the people were neighbours, Mr Haughey, free of charge, gave the council a site on which to build a treatment works, way-leave across his land, and access to a stream on his land.
"The reason I mention it here is that from that day to this I have been pilloried about that particular operation which I entered into in good faith and which is now entered more or less into folklore, that I in some way gained from that operation.
"The truth of the matter is that that sewerage work installed at that time was totally dedicated to the Baskin estate and was of no benefit whatsoever to me or any of my family," Mr Haughey said. Abbeville, Mr Haughey informed the tribunal, is still using the septic tank built for it in 1790. In all, it was the most sustained segment of evidence given as yet by Mr Haughey.
He is to continue giving evidence this morning and may reach the crucial events of 1979/ 1980 when he settled his £1.1 million overdraft with a payment of £750,000. However, the evidence has been moving slowly and the key point may not be reached until Thursday. Dr Michael Smurfit gave evidence in the afternoon concerning a number of dealings he had with Mr Haughey. Dr Smurfit said he might have thought it unusual in 1989 when Mr Traynor, who had no particular involvement with Fianna Fail, provided details on where to send £60,000 he had agreed to give the party following a request that he do so from Mr Haughey.
However, he would have had no reason to distrust Mr Traynor. "I was dealing with somebody who was, in my opinion, a close personal friend, a man of total probity." Also Dr Smurfit said he many not have personally dealt with the details of the payment.
Amazingly, an instruction from a senior executive went from the Smurfit offices in Clonskeagh, Dublin, to AIB, St Helier, Jersey, to have the money sent to an account with Henry Ansbacher Bank, London. Told that his money had never reached Fianna Fail, Dr Smurfit said: "Well, that's very sad."
Dr Smurfit also gave evidence concerning a painting, The Forge, by Jack B. Yeats, which he gave to Mr Haughey in 1990, when it was worth about £55,000. Dr Smurfit said he had an appointment to meet Mr Haughey in Government Buildings. Mr Haughey did not know the purpose of the meeting, but Dr Smurfit was going to hand over a painting, by Sir John Lavery, which he wanted to give to the State.
He "decided before I went there, literally on the spur of the moment", to give Mr Haughey a personal gift of the Yeats painting. The idea was to mark Mr Haughey assuming the presidency of the EU. No one else was present at the time of the handover. Dr Smurfit urged Mr Haughey not to sell the painting immediately.
He was never directly asked for money by Mr Haughey, though he was once asked by him if the Smurfit group would invest in Celtic Helicopters. He declined to do so but did take out a contract with the company.
Some time in the period 1989 to 1991, when he was canvassing for membership of the K Club, he contacted Mr Traynor. Mr Traynor declined to join the club but took the opportunity to ask Dr Smurfit if he would make a contribution towards Mr Haughey, whose finances were in a bad way. Dr Smurfit declined.
Mr Haughey's finances at that stage, we now know, were quite healthy, courtesy of Mr Ben Dunne.