Central banker raised funds for FF

The Central Bank is considering whether to take action over the failure of one of its directors, Mr Roy Donovan, to volunteer important information to the Moriarty tribunal.

Mr Donovan, who is chairman of the Central Bank's remuneration and budget committee, did not tell the tribunal until a few weeks ago, of his involvement in soliciting money for the late Mr Brian Lenihan's liver-transplant fund.

Large sums of money raised for the fund appear to have been used instead to meet the personal expenses of former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey while he was in office.

Mr Donovan was instrumental in the soliciting of £25,000 from the builder, Mr Phil Monahan, for the fund. Although the tribunal has been investigating the use of the money collected for Mr Lenihan for more than a year, Mr Donovan did not give details of his knowledge of events until he was contacted by the tribunal in recent weeks.

A spokesman for the bank said that it did not want to comment on the behaviour of Mr Donovan, who has been a non-executive director of the bank since 1989.

He was appointed by Mr Albert Reynolds, who was minister for finance in the government led by Mr Haughey. It also emerged this week that Mr Donovan continued to raise money for Fianna Fail while a director of the bank until well into the 1990s when Mr Reynolds was Taoiseach. The Central Bank has regulatory responsibility for the commercial banks, all of which were frequently approached by political parties for contributions.

A code of practice for directors of the Central Bank was introduced in 1992. It requires them to disclose all their interests and professional relationships.

It also requires that a director should consult the governor of the bank about other sources of conflict that they might have. Directors of the Central Bank hold their office at the pleasure of the minister and may be removed at any time. The Department of Finance said yesterday that Mr Donovan's actions "were a matter for the tribunal".

Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Jerry Healy SC, went to considerable lengths on Wednesday to establish why Mr Donovan had not come forward with the information which related to what he described as "the hottest controversy in this country last year". "Did you not think this was an important piece of information to bring to the attention of the tribunal?" he asked. Mr Donovan said he did not volunteer the information to the tribunal because he had not collected any money. He said that he thought the information would come out anyway and his evidence would constitute hearsay.

Mr Healy pointed out that Mr Donovan was a member of Fianna Fail and that "the party president, the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, has indicated that the party is fully committed to making available to the tribunal every scrap of information it has which might be of assistance to it". Mr Donovan, who is also a director of Lisney, the estate agents, arranged a meeting in 1991 between Mr Monahan and Mr Paul Kavanagh, who was the party's chief fundraiser at the time.

Mr Kavanagh originally sought £50,000 from the builder, but only succeeded in raising £25,000. Mr Monahan maintains he was unaware that the money was intended for Mr Lenihan's transplant fund and that he thought it was a payment to Fianna Fail.