Ben Dunne cash went to Haughey helicopter company

Some of the extra Dunnes payments which the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, believes should have been referred to the McCracken tribunal, went to Celtic Helicopters Ltd. Mr Ciaran Haughey, son of the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, is a major shareholder in the company.

Over half of a total payment of £180,000 made by Mr Ben Dunne in November 1992 is understood to have gone to Celtic Helicopters, The Irish Times has learned. The final destination of the rest could not be confirmed.

The £180,000 was paid out in three cheques made out to cash and signed by Mr Dunne. The funds came from an account in the Bank of Ireland branch in Marino, Dublin, controlled by Mr Dunne, and ended up in another account in the same branch, not connected with Mr Dunne.

Attempts to contact Mr Ciaran Haughey or other executives of the firm last night were not successful. During the McCracken tribunal it emerged that a number of Celtic Helicopters loans had been backed by funds from the Ansbacher deposits. It also emerged that one such loan, for £150,000, was paid off in February 1992 with money from the Ansbacher deposits.

Details of payments totalling about £500,000 and made between 1987 and 1992, of which the £180,000 is part, emerged on Thursday in a High Court case where Dunnes Stores is contesting the appointment of an authorised officer to two companies, Dunnes Stores Ireland Ltd and Dunnes Stores Ilac Ltd. Dunnes Stores has brought the payments to the attention of the Moriarty tribunal.

One of the payments, of £282,500 sterling on May 27th, 1987, came from a Dunnes Stores account in Bangor, Co Down. The payment was to a Guernsey-registered company, Tripleplan, one of the directors of which was the late Mr John Furze, the Cayman Islands banker linked to the Ansbacher deposits.

It has now been learned that this money was paid into an account in Barclays Bank in London. The McCracken tribunal reported that a payment by Mr Ben Dunne to Mr Charles Haughey of £471,000 sterling in August 1988 was lodged at one stage in the same Barclays bank in London. These funds went into an account there in the name of Mr Furze and were later transferred to Guinness & Mahon bank in Dublin, which held the Ansbacher deposits.

In a further development, in an affidavit to the High Court Mr Paul Appleby, one of Ms Harney's senior civil servants, refers to a report compiled by Judge Gerard Buchanan for the Government, before the McCracken tribunal, which raises questions about another bank account controlled by Mr Ben Dunne.

The affidavit states: "The Buchanan Report . . . found that 63 per cent of the payments of monies from an account known as the Bank of Ireland Marino Account, and from a number of other similar accounts, were made to beneficiaries who could not be identified."

Mr Appleby further states that Ms Margaret Heffernan, the managing director of Dunnes Stores, indicated to the McCracken tribunal that "the said monies were the property of Dunnes Stores".

It is understood the Marino account referred to was the one controlled by Mr Dunne personally. The value of the monies referred to is not known. During the McCracken tribunal it emerged that in October 1988 Mr Dunne wrote a cheque for £10,000 made out to cash from this account, and gave it to Mr Ciaran Haughey as a bonus payment for piloting services. In October 1990, £25,000 sterling was paid to Mr Michael Lowry using funds from the Marino account.

In court yesterday counsel for Ms Heffernan and the two Dunnes Stores companies, Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, said details of the payments totalling approximately £500,000 were given to the Moriarty tribunal as soon as Dunnes became aware of them.