STAFF at an inauspicious office building in Dublin manage millions of US dollars in gifts each year from the Irish-American philanthropist Charles "Chuck" Feeney, not just for Ireland but around the globe.

A large portion of the $600 million signed away by Mr Feeney's Atlantic Foundation was routed through a small office on Dublin's Baggot Street, by a company named Tara Consultants.

The firm is managed by Mr John Healy, and is the conduit not just for the remarkable stream of anonymous cash to Irish universities and charities, but also the donations for projects in South Africa, eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Israel and Jordan.

Mr Healy, who was assistant chief executive of Coras Trachtala - now An Bord Trachtala in the 1980s, now describes himself as a management consultant. It is understood that he became friendly with Mr Feeney - when they met at a function organised by the Irish-American Partnership.

Subsequently, Mrs Healy estabished Tara Consultants for the purpose of choosing beneficiaries of Mr Feeney's extraordinary generosity, and distributing the money tracelessly through the Atlantic Foundation and the Atlantic Trust. It now has a staff of 10.

The unpretentious office on Baggot Street has not attracted the attention of the thousands of centre city business executives who walk past its facade each day. A brass plaque on the door, marked Tara House, is the only indication of the huge financial transactions that occur behind it.

While Mr Healy, like his associate Mr Feeney, prefers not to speak toe the press, a spokesman for the Atlantic Trust confirmed last night that Tara Consultants was far more than a local distributor for Ireland.

"Most of the donations outside of the United States were managed by Tara," the spokesman added.

He also stressed, perhaps to prevent the premises being bombarded by requests for cash from the needy, and the greedy alike, that unsolicited demands disqualify themselves from consideration.