The first reports from authorised officers appointed by Mary Harney are expected by the end of this year. These are reports by Peter Fisher on Garuda Ltd, the company owned by the former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry, and by George Maloney on Faxhill Homes Ltd, the company which built an extension to Mr Lowry's home. Faxhill was paid by Ben Dunne, and the payment was dealt with in the Dunnes Stores accounts as if it was work carried out for the group.
A report on Celtic Helicopters being prepared by Gerard Ryan is not expected until early next year. Ciaran Haughey, a son of Charles Haughey, is a major shareholder in Celtic Helicopters.
Celtic Helicopters was mentioned in the McCracken report. Funds in the Ansbacher deposits were used to back loans to Celtic Helicopters and in one case were used to pay off a loan. Ciaran Haughey told the McCracken tribunal he had not been aware of these facts. Mr Ryan was appointed to Celtic Helicopters in September of last year. In January, in an interim report, he informed the Tanaiste he could not finish his work without getting access to details of the Ansbacher deposits.
Ms Harney then appointed him to the four main companies involved with the Ansbacher deposits, and he is now carrying out an inquiry into their general operation.
Information supplied by Mr Ryan and resulting from his inquiries into Celtic Helicopters and Guinness & Mahon bank - one of the companies involved with the Ansbacher deposits - formed part of the material which led Ms Harney to appoint an authorised officer to two Dunnes Stores companies in July.
Other information which led to the decision came from Mr Fisher's inquiries into Garuda, from the McCracken report, and from an inquiry being carried out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland. This inquiry, which is concerned with the activities of some accountants as detailed in the McCracken report, is being held in private, but with an observer from Ms Harney's Department in attendance. Its work is currently on hold pending a High Court action by Oliver Freaney & Co. The company is seeking a judicial review of the procedures used by the inquiry.
The two Dunnes companies to which Mr Ryan has been appointed are Dunnes Stores (Ilac) and Dunnes Stores Ireland. The latter is the flagship Dunnes company in this jurisdiction, and the reasons Ms Harney decided to appoint an authorised officer to the company include a suspicion that it might have been run with intent to defraud shareholders. The company is owned by the Dunnes holding company, which in turn is owned by a trust. The beneficiaries of the trust are Ms Margaret Heffernan, Mr Frank Dunne and the family of the late Ms Elizabeth McMahon.
The appointment of the authorised officer was challenged unsuccessfully by Dunnes. The group said it had been co-operating voluntarily with the various inquiries being carried out by Ms Harney's Department and that the appointment was damaging the group's reputation. The High Court upheld the appointment but agreed that Dunnes should be given the reasons for the appointment. A confidential affidavit from Ms Harney outlining her reasons was given to Dunnes yesterday.
During the Dunnes challenge it emerged that payments of approximately £500,000 by Dunnes had "characteristics" similar to the payments investigated by the McCracken tribunal. These included £180,000 lodged in an account belonging to the property development company, Carlisle Trust. Celtic Helicopters received £100,000 of this money.
The late Des Traynor, who was a director of Carlisle Trust and financial adviser to Mr Charles Haughey, received the remaining £80,000. A further £282,500 sterling paid out by Dunnes (Bangor) went to a British company called Tripleplan, which had directors associated with the Ansbacher deposits. The payments were made in November 1992 and May 1987 respectively.
