Expelled auditor still seeking answers on accounts

Paul Mackay's position in Charles Haughey's constituency was not so much a job as a formality. He got the nod from Charlie at the constituency annual general meeting in a Clontarf hotel on May 6th, 1981.

"It came towards the last item on the agenda. Someone said we had to appoint two auditors. Haughey was in the chair and I was someone whose face he saw. He knew I was an accountant and would be able to do the job."

Less than two years later, Mr Mackay was expelled from Fianna Fail for "conduct unbecoming". He had sent a letter to every Oireachtas member saying the party was bankrupt and alleging that "serious financial irregularities" existed in Haughey's constituency.

He and fellow accountant John Law were nominated honorary auditors to the constituency accounts at the 1981 meeting. The accounts were a simple document: two A4 sheets of paper listing cash in and cash out.

The auditors had to sign the accounts to show everything was in order.

There were two constituency accounts: one in AIB in Mary Street and the other, a building society account in the Irish Permanent. The incoming amounts included £405 for cumann contributions, a £2,613 rebate from the national collection and £58 in building society interest.

The largest payments out of the account were £1,307 towards the national collection and £550 to the Eamon de Valera Memorial Fund. The rest were small figures, including £25 for a Mass for Mr Haughey's late father-in-law, Sean Lemass.

Mr Mackay believed that large amounts of money had been spent on the two election campaigns during his term of auditor. "I'd witnessed at first hand the huge spending that took place to feed an ego. There was money coming out people's ears."

He asked to see the accounts for election funds and was told that this account was not available to the constituency auditors. He added a qualification to the accounts saying no information was made available on income and expenditure on the elections.

A member of the election committee of the time, who does not wish to be named, said a separate election account was kept at Bank of Ireland, Ormond Quay. "Paul Mackay's gripe was that he didn't get to audit the election expenses. But they never formed part of the comhairle accounts. The list of contributors was a closely guarded secret. During elections there was a finance committee appointed under Pat O'Connor."

Mr O'Connor, a solicitor on Mr Haughey's legal team for the 1970 arms trial, was his election agent at the time. He was charged with voting twice in the 1982 election. The charges were dismissed in the District Court and appealed by the DPP to the High Court, where they were also dismissed.

Candidates did not want other party rivals to know where contributions were coming from, the source said, and election funds were kept separately and not open to audit by the constituency auditor. The source said that roughly £45,000 was spent on three elections during that period.

Mr Mackay has estimated that double that was spent on just two elections. "The people that were on that committee have nothing to hide. They know that any bills discharged were paid," the source said.

In June 1982 Mr Mackay asked Fianna Fail general secretary Frank Wall to ask the national executive to investigate the matter. Mr Wall wrote to Mr Mackay saying that the national executive felt it was a constituency matter. Mr Mackay threatened legal action. Mr Wall warned that he could be disciplined for showing "conduct unbecoming to a Fianna Fail member".

Mr Mackay went to the 1983 ardfheis intending to raise the matter during the presentation of the treasurer's report. He said the report was presented on a Sunday afternoon and no questions from the floor were allowed. "I was doubly frustrated by that."

He wrote to every Fianna Fail Oireachtas member on March 23rd, 1983, saying the party was bankrupt and there were "serious financial irregularities" in Haughey's constituency. He estimated that FF central office had a £1 million debt.

On April 20th, 1983, a courier delivered a letter to his home and his wife read it to him over the phone. It said the National Executive had arranged a meeting to discipline him under rule 7, covering "conduct unbecoming" the following day.

He succeeded in getting an injunction against that meeting and it was subsequently held on April 29th.

"There were 70 to 80 people there from party offices and representatives from the constituency. Everyone had been told to keep their mouths shut," he said. The meeting voted to expel Mr Mackay from the party.

"From my point of view it was very traumatic. I'd been a member for nearly 25 years. I did not come from a Fianna Fail background. I joined as a teenager because I admired Lemass. I got involved and gave a fair bit of time to it."

After Mr Haughey's appearance at the Dunnes tribunal, Mr Mackay wrote to the party leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, saying there was a need to open the books from that period. He has offered to pay for an inspection of the election accounts. It is understood that Mr Ahern replied, saying he would consider the issues and contact Mr Mackay again.

However, the election committee source said the first call he had received on the matter was from The Irish Times and he had not been contacted by Fianna Fail in relation to any investigation. He said Mr Mackay was "chasing a lame duck" demanding to see the official account of election expenses as all monies received from contributors were accounted for.

"I don't see what they can investigate. Every contribution received was acknowledged. It didn't involve the expenditure of Fianna Fail comhairle money and that's all Paul Mackay was entitled to know about."

But he said he did not know what other money might have been contributed for elections and not lodged to the election account. "No one would have had sight of the full account."