Mr Charles Haughey told the Moriarty tribunal he had no knowledge of where a sum of £750,000 came from, paid in settlement of his debt to AIB, apart from £300,000 from Mr Patrick Gallagher for the proposed sale of land at Abbeville.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said by the time Mr Haughey had the discussion with Mr Gallagher on December 16th, 1979, about the land, Mr Des Traynor had opened a special account for the purpose of clearing his debt with the AIB.
Referring to the special account, Mr Coughlan asked Mr Haughey if £150,000 came from the Rotunda branch of the Bank of Ireland, £300,000 from the Gallagher Group and another £150,000 from some source. That amounted to £600,000 which did not come by way of loan from Guinness & Mahon (G&M), he contended.
Mr Haughey said it was always his view that Mr Traynor arranged it, through G&M he assumed, but perhaps through another institution. "I assumed the remainder was supplied by G&M by way of loan or something of that order," Mr Haughey said: Mr Coughlan said there was no record in G&M of any such loan. Did he ever remember paying any monies back to G&M in respect of such a loan?
"No, but my accountant, whose services I've employed to help the tribunal, has indicated he believes the loan raised in the Caymans subsequently would have been used to pay off G&M's foreign investment. He could give evidence of that," Mr Haughey said.
Mr Coughlan said G&M did not appear to have been the source of the loan for the £750,000, or even half of it. Asked if he knew of anybody who made a payment on his behalf, Mr Haughey said he did not. "Mr Traynor had his own way of operating; he was the essence of discretion and confidentiality and his general approach was, in situations like this, `leave this to me and I'll attend to it' and as far as possible he wouldn't bother you with detail, and I know that £150,000 is not a detail, but he would come to you when the transaction had been concluded," Mr Haughey said.
Mr Coughlan said a lodgement was made on January 24th, 1980, of another £150,000 and, from the G&M records, it was in the form of a cheque presented by G&M for special clearance via the Central Bank for crediting to Mr Traynor's account. It did not come by way of a loan from G&M and had to have come from some other external source.
Mr Haughey said: "I can only say I cannot confirm or deny any of these details."
Mr Coughlan said: "You also accept it could have involved Mr Traynor asking people for money on your behalf, isn't that right?"
"I'm not necessarily saying that, but he may have had at his disposal other funds; I don't know," Mr Haughey said.