The weekend before Mr Charles Haughey meet his AIB bank manager, he had a discussion with Mr Denis Traynor which probably influenced and had a bearing on the meeting, Mr Haughey told the tribunal yesterday.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, had referred to a memo by Mr Michael Phelan, an AIB bank manager, describing a meeting he had with Mr Haughey on February 19th, 1979, in which ways to reduce his indebtedness were discussed.
Referring to bank notes, Mr Haughey said from the notes he apparently had phoned the bank manager to say he was seeing Mr Tryanor on the Saturday and Sunday.
"It would seem that the meeting preceded the February 19th meeting and probably influenced the meeting of the 19th. In other words, whatever discussion I had with Mr Traynor it would have had a bearing on my meeting with the manager on the 19th," Mr Haughey said.
Mr Coughlan said he presumed he met Mr Traynor and would have discussed how his meeting with the bank manager might be approached.
Mr Haughey said: "As I would usually do from time to time."
He said they had already got evidence that Mr Traynor was in touch with the AIB directly and handed in a letter authorising him to deal with his affairs. Mr Traynor was fully cognisant of the AIB situation and therefore he would have almost certainly have discussed the meeting with Mr Traynor.
Mr Coughlan said that in 1975 Mr Traynor handed in a letter from Mr Haughey authorising AIB to discuss his account with Mr Traynor.
Mr Coughlan said documents seemed to indicate that Mr Haughey contacted the bank manager on February 8th to inform him that he (Haughey) would be having discussions with Mr Traynor over the following weekend.
He asked if Mr Haughey would agree that there did not appear to be any other document which showed any other contact between the AIB and Mr Traynor between 1975 and 1979.
Mr Haughey said: "I would not accept at all that in that period Mr Traynor would not have been in touch with the AIB on my behalf."