Mr Charles Haughey's claim that a £20,000 cheque given to him to help pay the medical expenses of the late Brian Lenihan was paid to the relevant Fianna Fail party bank account is being investigated by the tribunal.
The tribunal is investigating whether funds donated for Mr Lenihan's treatment were used to pay Mr Haughey's expenses.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said that it could find no records that two cheques given to Mr Haughey in June 1989 - one for £20,000 towards the Lenihan fund and another political donation of £10,000 - were lodged in the party leader's allowance account, as Mr Haughey said. Both cheques, from the Irish Permanent Building Society, were dated June 7th, 1989.
Following media reports that he had diverted for his own use money donated for Mr Lenihan's care, Mr Haughey issued a statement last July. He said that both IPBS cheques had been "inadvertently lodged" on June 13th 1989 to the account of Celtic Helicopters, the firm run by his son, Ciaran.
Mr Haughey said that on the same day a £30,000 cheque made payable to cash was drawn on the Celtic Helicopters account.
An examination of available bank records indicated that this £30,000 cheque was lodged to the party leader's allowance account on June 20th in AIB's Baggot Street branch, the statement said. This was the same account to which contributions to the Lenihan fund were lodged, it added.
Mr Coughlan said that the tribunal had asked Mr Haughey's solicitors to make available bank records showing that the £30,000 was in fact lodged to the leader's allowance account. No response had been received from them.
The tribunal had examined the leader's allowance account and related accounts. A lodgement to the Celtic Helicopters bank account on June 13th 1989 corresponded to the two "inadvertently lodged" IPBS cheques. The Celtic Helicopters cheque for cash, co-signed by Mr Ciaran Haughey, was drawn from the account on the same day as this lodgement and was presented to AIB's Baggot Street branch on June 20th, 1989.
Mr Coughlan said that the tribunal had been unable to uncover any evidence suggesting that the £30,000 was actually lodged to the leader's allowance account on that day or on any subsequent date.
An AIB official, Ms Mary O'Connor, gave evidence that it was "more probable than not" that the £30,000 cheque was cashed over the counter.
There were two separate payments credited to the account on that date, one for £7,288.63 and the other for £36,000. The available material seemed to indicate that the £36,000 lodgement did not incorporate the Celtic Helicopters cheque, Mr Coughlan said. This was because another £25,000 cheque from Goodman International was lodged to the account on June 20th, 1989. This cheque, signed by Mr Larry Goodman, was made payable to the Fianna Fail Party Leadership Fund. It followed a request to Mr Goodman to contribute to Mr Lenihan's expenses.
As there was no credit to the leader's allowance account on or after June 20th 1989, the Celtic Helicopters cheque might not have been lodged to the account at all, Mr Coughlan said. "The question is whether . . . the £30,000 cheque was cashed there and then, or lodged to some account, or whether the proceeds of that cheque were applied in some other way."
Mr Ciaran Haughey gave evidence that he had no recollection of writing the Celtic Helicopters cheque to cash or the reason for it. He agreed with Mr Coughlan that he assumed that someone must have said to him that £30,000 was inadvertently deposited in his company's account and requested its return, and that this was what prompted him to write the cheque.