FF leader's account:Dealings involving Bertie Ahern in an inquiry into a large 1989 donation are called "extraordinary". Colm Keenareports
The 1989 general election campaign was the backdrop to an outbreak of theft and disputed payments involving then senior members of Fianna Fáil.
The Mahon tribunal is examining payments retained by Ray Burke and Pádraig Flynn that were allegedly intended for the party.
The Moriarty tribunal has now found that the then taoiseach and Fianna Fáil party leader Charles Haughey stole money from his party during this period.
The matter is dealt with in a lengthy chapter concerning Mr Haughey's use of the Fianna Fáil party leader's account.
The report says the account was used by the late Mr Haughey to settle personal expenses. It was used to lodge funds he subsequently took for his own use.
The leader's allowance account was intended for public funds paid to the party. Two signatures were needed on its cheques, and the authorised signatories in the late 1980s were Mr Haughey, Bertie Ahern and Ray MacSharry.
It was traditional for the party chief whip to be a signatory and Mr Ahern became a signatory upon his appointment to that office in the early 1980s. When in 1987 he was appointed a government minister, he was not replaced as a signatory.
The tribunal found that Mr Ahern was the main if not the exclusive counter-signatory on the account during the late Haughey period. He told the tribunal that, because of his busy schedule, he sometimes "for administrative convenience" signed blank cheques so they could be used when needed. The tribunal was told he on occasion signed large numbers of cheques, and was once witnessed signing a full book of blank cheques.
The account was administered by an employee of Fianna Fáil, Eileen Foy. When the question of the possible misuse of the account was first raised in the Dáil in 1997, Mr Ahern said it had not been misused.
"I am satisfied, having spoken to the person who administered the account, that it was used for bona fide party purposes, that the cheques were prepared by that person and counter-signed by another senior party member.
"There was no surplus and no misappropriation," he said. "The account as far as her excellent recollection goes was normally short, not the other way around. I have spoken to her at some length."
Mr Ahern did not tell the Dáil that the "senior party member" he was referring to was in fact himself. Also Ms Foy, who was well known to Mr Ahern, had great difficulty recalling important facts to do with the account when she was later called before the tribunal.
When Ms Foy was asked about the conversation she'd had with Mr Ahern prior to his statement to the Dáil, and whether she'd said anything to him which might have caused him to refer to her excellent recollection, she said she couldn't remember.
She did recall that in certain years additional monies over and above those received from the exchequer were lodged to the account. The largest excess was in 1989.
Ms Foy said that on occasion Mr Haughey asked her to prepare cheques with the payee left blank. Mr Haughey would tell her the intended purpose of the payments.
The tribunal referred to 1989 as a "unique year" in terms of lodgments to the account. Of the £313,409 lodged, only £93,107 was the leader's allowance.
The records and cheque stubs for the account were not available to the tribunal. Evidence was heard that they were removed at the time Mr Haughey left office.
The tribunal identified drawings from the account that were used to pay bills in Le Coq Hardi restaurant and to buy shirts from the Parisian shirt-maker Charvet.
The tribunal heard evidence that a parcel from Charvet arrived at Government Buildings in the late 1980s and the receipt was sent to Ms Foy.
In 1989 party fundraiser Paul Kavanagh worked on raising funds for the election campaign and also for Brian Lenihan's medical treatment in the US. Cheques relating to the Lenihan fund were passed to Ms Foy, who lodged them in the party leader's account. Of the £265,000 lodged for Mr Lenihan, only £70,000 was spent on his medical bills, the tribunal found.
A complicated scenario was put in train by Mr Haughey to do with £100,000 given to him by property developer Mark Kavanagh and £60,000 given by businessman Michael Smurfit. Mr Kavanagh said he intended £25,000 of his £100,000 to go to the Lenihan fund and the rest to Fianna Fáil.
"Mr Haughey deliberately and skilfully arranged the manner in which these payments were made to enable him to retain £85,000 of the £160,000 provided, while ensuring that donations for lesser amounts were recorded as being received by Fianna Fáil headquarters," the tribunal said.
The payments were made in 1989. The money from Mr Smurfit was lodged to Mr Haughey's Ansbacher account. A cheque for £25,000 from Mark Kavanagh was given to Fianna Fáil by Mr Haughey as a donation from Mr Kavanagh, and the receipt given to Mr Haughey.
A further £50,000 in two bank drafts from Mr Kavanagh was used to buy a draft which was then given to the party. Mr Haughey said the money was from Mr Smurfit, and took a receipt. The remaining £25,000 draft from Mr Kavanagh was cashed by Mr Haughey.
Mr Kavanagh, when asked for more money for the party by the late Eoin Ryan in 1996, complained he had never received a receipt for his 1989 contribution.
The matter was brought to the attention of Mr Ahern, then the leader of the opposition. Mr Ahern made inquiries of Seán Fleming, then financial controller of Fianna Fáil and now a TD.
Mr Ahern, in his evidence, said he didn't recall the details but accepted the evidence of Mr Fleming to the effect that he was told by Mr Fleming that a donation of £25,000 had been received from Mr Kavanagh, and a receipt given to Mr Haughey.
Mr Ahern later met Mr Kavanagh and told him his donation had been received by the party. Mr Kavanagh then made a further donation.
"What is extraordinary about these events," Mr Justice Moriarty said in his report, "is that it appears from the evidence of Mr Ryan, Mr Kavanagh and Mr Ahern that in the course of all the dealings between them, the discrepancy between the donation made and the donation recorded never arose."
Mr Justice Moriarty noted that Mr Ryan, Mr Kavanagh and Mr Ahern had these conversations without mentioning the amount involved.
"The only reasonable explanations for all of these omissions are that: either those concerned were deeply embarrassed by what had occurred and chose to adopt a diplomatic approach to the issue, or that there was a tacit understanding between them that the matter had arisen in a former era and that its details were best left undisturbed," said Mr Justice Moriarty.