WHAT this tribunal needs is Mr Haughey. There have been two days of detailed and damaging allegations from Mr Ben Dunne, backed up by his former close friend and adviser, Mr Noel Fox. The money trail has been detailed, the research of the tribunal team impressive.
Mr Dunne has provided the best lines of the tribunal, with an eye for significant and colourful detail, including Mr Haughey's alleged response to being handed bank drafts worth £210,000 after a cup of tea at Kinsealy. "Thank you, big fella."
But despite the colourful detail, the fact is that Mr Haughey has denied everything. So far, however, his denial has been confined to the written word, and it is not yet known whether he intends to give oral evidence. Of course he, like any other person can be subpoenaed by the tribunal.
He has been told he is entitled to legal representation, and that his representatives could cross examine those making allegations concerning him, but he has so far chosen not to avail of this entitlement.
Mr Haughey wrote to the tribunal last month saying that neither he nor any person connected with him had received any money from Mr Dunne, save relatively small amounts already revealed. He enclosed correspondence from Matheson Ormsby Prentice, solicitors for the Dunnes Settlement Trust, seeking the return of monies "improperly diverted" to him and his reply, which stated "As no such monies have been paid no repayment arises."
Mr Dunne and Mr Fox have been as unequivocal as Mr Haughey. They have no doubt that the money went to Mr Haughey, they told the tribunal. "I had no doubt," Mr Fox repeated when asked several times. "I accepted it at all times and still accept it."
Had Mr Dunne any doubt? "None. Definitely Mr Haughey," he asserted.
The research of the tribunal as outlined so far backs up the detailed evidence of Mr Dunne and Mr Fox as to how the payments were made, but stops short of finding Mr Haughey's name at the final destination of the payments. A considerable amount of circumstantial evidence has emerged, however.
The approaches to Mr Dunne, through Mr Fox, for the money were made by the late Mr Des Traynor, a close personal friend of Mr Haughey. Mr Fox agreed that Mr Traynor was "one of the people you would expect might be helping Mr Haughey to sort out a financial or business problem.
Just as he appears at the beginning of the money trail, Mr Traynor appears at the end. The first four payments totalling £1.1 million ended up in the account of Ansbacher Ltd, Cayman Islands, in the bank of Guinness & Mahon (Ireland). Mr Traynor was a non-executive director of Ansbacher Ltd, Cayman Islands, and managing director of Guinness & Mahon (Ireland).
And Guinness & Mahon (Ireland) was where in May 1987 Mr Haughey had a current account overdrawn by some £261,000.
The final payment the three bank drafts worth £70,000 each handed over in Kinsealy in November 1991 by Mr Dunne to Mr Haughey with, according to Mr Dunne, the words. "Look, that's something for yourself" ended up in the Irish Intercontinental Bank in Dublin in an account maintained by Ansbacher Ltd bank. The sole signatories on this account were Mr John Furze, Mr John Collins and Mr Traynor.
The details given by Mr Dunne and Mr Fox have been thorough. They coincide with bank and financial records examined by the tribunal. The complex routing of the payments was, according to Mr Dunne and Mr Fox, requested by Mr Traynor. Mr Dunne has said several times that he understood the need for this procedure from Mr Haughey's point of view.
Which raises the question of why Mr Dunne himself cut right through the trail of foreign banks to hand over £210,000 to Mr Haughey after a cup of tea at Kinsealy. He had met Mr Haughey just once before 1986-1987, yet in 1991 he was able to ring him after a game of golf at Baltray, in north Co Dublin, and ask if he could call in for a cup of tea. It was after the cup of tea he says he handed over, unsolicited, the three bank drafts worth £70,000 each.
Mr Dunne told the tribunal on Monday he had met Mr Haughey just once before the 1986-1987 period. He said yesterday he had met him just twice since the November 1991 meeting in Kinsealy. Later yesterday, however, he said he had met Mr Haughey "50 or 60 times in my life".
This means that almost all of these 50 to 60 meetings took place during roughly five years from the 1986-1987 period to November 1991. Mr Dunne says his first payment to the benefit of Mr Haughey took place in December 1987 and the last in November 1991.
Mr Haughey is not the only person who might usefully assist the tribunal. It has emerged that Mr Michael Lowry who certainly will give evidence received £105,000 in payments to an off shore account in the Isle of Man. He did not mention these payments in his statement to the Dail on December 19th last.
Mr Dunne stated throughout his evidence he had wanted to keep Mr Haughey's financial troubles confidential, and that was why he had agreed to pay all the money Mr Traynor sought to collect, and not just the £150,000 for which he was originally asked.
"In my mind I wanted it kept confidential on my side. I never thought I'd end up here."