Mr Charles Haughey said yesterday he was not sure whether he was never aware of a Guinness & Mahon account in his name in the late 1970s and 1980s, as he had stated previously, or if he knew at the time but had forgotten.
Mr Haughey had said in previous evidence that he first became aware of the account when the tribunal brought it to his attention.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said a G & M statement of an account in Mr Haughey's name showed that from February 1979 to October 1979, £105,000 had been lodged. Mr Haughey at this time was in debt to AIB for more than £1 million. A settlement of £750,000 was negotiated by Mr Des Traynor. Mr Coughlan put it to Mr Haughey that if money was being introduced to the G & M account, he must have had some knowledge that some monies were being raised for him.
Mr Haughey replied that he was not aware of the operation of these accounts. He had no knowledge of these various transactions, borrowings and so on.
Mr Coughlan asked: "Do you think that it is believable that such a situation could have existed that lodgements of this significance at this time were occurring and that you had no knowledge of it?"
"That is the position," Mr Haughey said.
Mr Coughlan said that, if that was so, Mr Traynor left him in a position of giving a bad account of himself when he (Haughey) told AIB no other account was operated by him or on his behalf.
Mr Haughey said: "If we go back to the AIB memorandum, it states that I stated that I had no other bank account. Now, if I did say that, and as I say I never saw the memorandum of that meeting but if I did say that at that meeting to AIB, then I was mistaken."
"Why were you mistaken?" asked Mr Coughlan.
"Because it now transpires that there was another bank account in G & M," Mr Haughey replied.
Mr Coughlan said that if Mr Traynor never told him about it, it left him in the position of giving that erroneous impression to AIB. Was that credible?
Mr Haughey said: "What you asked me about was, was I aware of these lodgements, Mr Coughlan, and I said No. I was not aware of these lodgements." "Were you aware of the accounts?" asked Mr Coughlan.
"I cannot say at this stage. My recollection is that I first remembered or became aware that this account was there in 1979 when you, this tribunal, brought it to my attention," said Mr Haughey.
Mr Coughlan said Mr Haughey was saying that in 1979 he did not know of the existence of this account.
Mr Haughey replied: "To the best of my recollection, no. At least if I was aware of it at the time I have since forgotten about it until you, this tribunal, brought it to my attention again."