Heavy investment in firm run by Ciarán Haughey

Celtic Helicopters:Prominent businessmen gave significant funding to Celtic Helicopters, a company run by Ciarán Haughey when his father Charles was at the height of his power.

Celtic never established itself as a beacon of success. But even when its prospects were poor, some of Mr Haughey's wealthiest supporters were not deterred from making heavy investments in it. Indeed, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said some of its backers regarded their investments with "more or less complete indifference".

While the company was ostensibly in the control of Ciarán Haughey and pilot John Barnicle, the tribunal found that Charles Haughey and his associate Des Traynor raised initial loan and equity capital of £160,000 in 1985.

Not only did the then Fianna Fáil leader receive "indirect payments" of some £632,000 via Celtic, he also used it as a vehicle to transmit and disguise direct payments he received.

Those who contributed to £49,987 of the initial fundraising for Celtic included Dr John O'Connell, former minister for health and ceann comhairle of the Dáil. Dr O'Connell, himself a wealthy owner of a lucrative medical publishing business, gave £5,000 to the company and saw the money as a "contribution" arising from his having joined Fianna Fáil. In 1992, Charles Haughey paid Dr O'Connell £15,000 for his shares.

The other initial investors were: late hotelier PV Doyle; the late business owner Séamus Purcell; and businessmen Cruse Moss and Joseph Malone. In Mr Malone's account, Mr Haughey was not a person to whom many people would say no. Mr Moss paid £4,987 for shares and received £7,000 when he sold them to the Haughey family in 1990.

"None of the payments mentioned above were prompted by commercial considerations," the tribunal report says.

There were other dealings. When Celtic was in financial difficulties in the early 1990s, its aviation insurance broker Mike Murphy Insurance arranged a loan of £99,000 to pay its premiums. However, company principal Mike Murphy arranged repayments on the loan through an associate firm.

"It would appear that these instalments, having been paid by a company associated with Mr Mike Murphy, were never repaid by Celtic Helicopters," the report says.

It notes indications from Mr Murphy that he was fearful of losing customers, especially in the beef industry, and was anxious not to be seen as the person who "pulled the plug" on the company.

In 1992 and 1993, when Celtic's finances were failing, Mr Murphy "guaranteed" a £100,000 investment in the company by David Gresty.

While this was among five investments totalling £290,329 that did not involve any examination of the company's difficulties, Mr Murphy stressed again that he had not wanted to make an enemy of the son of the most powerful man in the State.

The other investors at that time were businessmen Xavier McAuliffe, the late Patrick Butler, Guy Snowden and John Byrne, who gave a total of £190,329 to Celtic.

Such payments were first described by the Haughey family company Larchfield Securities as a loan and characterised later, without any reference to the businessmen, as representing cumulative preference shares.

"The shares were effectively treated by both Celtic Helicopters and by . . . Larchfield Securities as if the latter company had total dominion over them subject to some undefined residual obligation to the providers of the funds," the report says.