The Moriarty tribunal, which resumes its public hearings tomorrow, has to date revealed payments of more than £1.7 million made to the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, or companies linked to him.
The payments, made between 1980 and 1992, are in addition to the £1.1 million reported on by the McCracken tribunal, which investigated payments from Dunnes Stores.
The tribunal is investigating the finances of Mr Haughey and the former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry. It is also investigating any links between the Ansbacher deposits and payments to "holders of public office". It began hearing evidence in January and has to date had 21 public sitting days.
The tribunal's legal team has been working full-time since its establishment issuing orders, interviewing people in private, and reviewing documentation. It has also had to deal with High Court and Supreme Court challenges taken by Mr Haughey and his family.
In May the Dail was told the tribunal had cost almost £2.5 million, with just over £1.8 million of that accounted for by legal fees. The two senior counsel, Mr Jeremiah Healy and Mr John Coughlan, had each received £635,237. Junior counsel Ms Jacqueline O'Brien had received £413,080. A senior research assistant, Ms Marie Moriarty, had received £129,280, while Mr Brian McGuckian, a junior assistant, had received £43,834.
When the tribunal finishes its work, fees for the legal representatives of witnesses will add substantially to the costs.
The payments to Mr Haughey dealt with to date fall into three broad categories: the settlement of his £1.143 million debt to AIB in 1980; further payments totalling approximately £500,000 which he received from Dunnes Stores but which were not dealt with by the McCracken tribunal; and investments in or payments to Celtic Helicopters totalling approximately £475,000.
Mr Haughey's close friend and financial adviser, the late Mr Des Traynor, negotiated the settlement of Mr Haughey's £1.143 million with AIB in late 1979. Mr Haughey was elected leader of Fianna Fail and Taoiseach for the first time in December 1979. In early 1980 the debt was settled by way of payments totalling £750,000, which came by way of bank drafts from Guinness & Mahon bank.
It is not yet clear who supplied this money, though the tribunal has indicated it believes it came from Mr Patrick Gallagher, the head of the former Gallagher group, and two other unnamed individuals.
Mr Gallagher has given evidence of being called to see Mr Haughey at Kinsealy soon after his election as Taoiseach. He said Mr Haughey told him he was in debt and needed £750,000. Mr Gallagher offered to give £300,000 as a non-refundable deposit in a purported land deal whereby the Gallagher group would buy 35 acres of land from Mr Haughey.
The deal died when the Gallagher group collapsed. Mr Haughey kept the funds.
The settlement agreed between Mr Haughey and AIB has been described by the bank as a commercially justifiable one. If the amount written off, £393,000, which was all interest on money loaned, was to be considered as a payment to Mr Haughey, then the total uncovered to date by the Moriarty tribunal would rise to more than £2 million.
The tribunal has heard evidence in relation to three payments from Dunnes Stores, authorised by Mr Ben Dunne, in the period 1987 to 1992. The payments, which were not covered by the McCracken tribunal, were: £30,000 in January 1987; £282,500 sterling in May 1987; and £180,000 in November 1992.
The tribunal has treated payments to Celtic Helicopters as payments which qualify under its terms of reference in so far as they relate to Mr Haughey. It has heard evidence in relation to £80,000 raised by Mr Traynor in 1985, when Celtic Helicopters was being established. (The major shareholder in the company is Mr Ciaran Haughey, son of Mr Charles Haughey.)
The investors were: the hotelier, the late Mr P.V. Doyle, the livestock exporter, Mr Seamus Purcell, the former managing director of Bord Failte, Mr Joe Malone, and Mr Cruse W. Moss, a businessman from the US who was chairman of General Automotive Corporation (GAC), which was involved in the manufacture of buses for CIE in the former Bombardier plant at Shannon.
Dr John O'Connell, the former Fianna Fail minister for health, contributed £5,000 at the request of Mr Haughey.
In 1992 Mr Traynor was involved in the raising of a further £289,532 from five investors. They were: the property developer, Mr John Byrne (£47,532), the Kerry businessman, Mr Xavier McAuliffe (£50,000), the late Mr Pat Butler, of Butler Engineering, Portarlington, (£25,000), Mr Guy Snowden, the former head of G-Tech, a US multinational which has a lucrative contract with the National Lottery (£67,000), and Mr David Gresty, a Monacobased insurance agency owner, (£100,000).
Mr Gresty's investment was at the suggestion of Mr Michael Murphy, of Mike Murphy Insurance Brokers, Dublin. Mr Murphy sold insurance to Celtic Helicopters and placed a lot of business with Mr Gresty.
The tribunal has revealed that in 1992 Mr Murphy also raised a loan of £100,000 for Celtic Helicopters, to help it pay him, Mr Murphy, for aviation insurance. Mr Murphy then provided funds to Celtic Helicopters to help it repay the loan.
When the tribunal resumes its hearings next week it will turn its attention to the affairs of Mr Lowry. It will also look at the Ansbacher deposits and some accounts linked to them which are in turn linked to payments to Mr Haughey.
Counsel for the tribunal Mr John Coughlan SC has also said it may have to reinterpret its understanding of "holder of public office" as referred to in the tribunal's terms of reference. To date this has been taken to mean government minister.
His comments have led to speculation that the affairs of a third politician, who has not been a government minister, are being investigated by the tribunal.