There has been a number of odd payments discovered by the Moriarty tribunal in the course of its work and the Fustok payment is certainly one of that number.
Mr Mahmoud Fustok is a Saudi diplomat, brother-in-law of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and so rich that he was once involved in an attempt to corner the world's silver market. He buys hundreds of thoroughbred horses every year in what Mr Haughey's daughter, Ms Eimear Mulhern, said yesterday was a "very serious hobby".
A former Minister for Health, Dr John O'Connell, has known Mr Fustok since 1979. He was involved in securing an Irish passport for a close relative of Mr Fustok, Mr Kamal Fustok, in the early 1980s, as well as for others related to one of Mr Fustok's horse trainers.
The two men used to attend the bloodstock sales at Goffs. During one visit in the early 1980s, Dr O'Connell introduced the wealthy breeder to Ms Mulhern. She invited him back to Abbeville to meet her father.
According to Dr O'Connell, it was at a meeting in February 1985 in London that Mr Fustok gave him a cheque which he asked him to pass on to Mr Haughey. Mr Fustok did not say what the money was for.
Dr O'Connell passed on the money though not the cheque; instead he wrote out a cheque to cash, and gave it to Mr Haughey. He lodged Mr Fustok's cheque to his own account.
Mr Fustok, who spends much of his time in Florida, has been written to a number of times by the tribunal but has not replied to more recent missives. Mr Haughey said when he gave evidence, he had tried to convince Mr Fustok to locate some of his horse-breeding operation in this jurisdiction. In the wake of having rejected the approach, Mr Fustok, as a gesture Mr Haughey said, bought a yearling.
Ms Mulhern has been running the Abbeville stud farm since 1979 and was asked by the tribunal if she had any records documenting this sale. During an hour in the witness box yesterday, she explained how she didn't keep financial or unnecessary stud files going back to the mid-1980s.
Ms Mulhern also said that while she was aware in a general way of Mr Fustok buying a foal or yearling, she had no involvement in the negotiations, never witnessed the animal leaving the stud and did not know the price paid until last year.
Her father, she pointed out, paid the ESB bills and water rates for the Abbeville stud when it was still based in Kinsealy. She had no difficulty with his selling one of the animals and keeping the proceeds.
Yearlings, she explained, were not named by breeders. The pleasure of giving the horse a name was left to the purchasers.
Ms Mulhern's appearance at the tribunal means that all four of Mr Haughey's children have now given evidence. It seems his affairs were as hidden from them as they were from everyone else.
Mr Haughey's tax adviser from 1984 to 1997, Mr Pat Kenny, said yesterday he never knew about the large sums of money which businessmen gave to Mr Haughey during this period. When on a number of occasions he asked his client how he lived as he did on the income he was declaring, Mr Haughey said "by borrowing".
Mr Kenny was a tax partner with Haughey Boland and is now a tax partner with Deloitte & Touche, which has absorbed Haughey Boland. Haughey Boland was running a bill-paying service for Mr Haughey during the 1980s and Mr Kenny knew this. However, no one told him the huge amounts of money which were involved, so he never knew the true extent of Mr Haughey's outgoings.