A former private secretary to Mr Charles Haughey said yesterday senior party members would adjourn to the Le Coq Hardi restaurant for lunch after a Cabinet meeting and the bill would be sent for payment out of the party leader's account.
The account contained funds from the Exchequer which were intended, as Mr Bertie Ahern told the Dail two years ago, "to finance personnel, press and other normal supports" for a party leader.
Ms Eileen Foy, who was Mr Haughey's private secretary up to his resignation as Taoiseach in February 1992, said she was not particularly surprised that cheques totalling in excess of £15,000 were written out to Le Coq Hardi in the period April to December 1991.
She had not remembered or pointed out this particular reason for expenditure from the account until the copies of the cheques were produced by AIB.
She could not say yesterday if similar amounts were spent in the expensive Dublin restaurant in other years. She believed there was nothing wrong in the fund being used for the "entertainment" of political or business figures or to bring members of Fianna Fail committees out to lunch or dinner.
All of the 1991 cheques to Le Coq Hardi were written out by Ms Foy and signed by Mr Haughey and Mr Ahern. Ms Foy believes Mr Ahern would have signed most of the cheques when they were blank.
She could say this because at the time Mr Ahern was a very busy man so she would often have him sign blank cheques. They would then be filled in by her, on foot of invoices or instructions from Mr Haughey, and then countersigned by him. Sometimes Mr Haughey would tell her to write out cheques and leave the payee blank.
The bank statements for the account were collected by her at AIB Baggot Street, Dublin. She brought them back to her office and reconciled the statements with her own records. Her evidence indicated that only Mr Haughey was given information concerning the balance in the account.
The amount received by the party from the Exchequer varied over the years between £10,000 to £16,000 per month. Ms Foy had no particular recollection of two lodgements of £50,000 each in 1986. Both cheques came from Irish Permanent, were made out to Fianna Fail and endorsed on the back by Mr Haughey.
Nor did she have any particular recollection of a £25,000 debit from the account in October 1986. Evidence has been given that this £25,000 was lodged to an account linked to the payment of Mr Haughey's personal finances. "I was obviously given a very logical explanation at the time", she said.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, brought to Ms Foy's attention a statement from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to the Dail, in September 1997: "I am satisfied, having spoken to the person who administered the account, that it was used for bona fide party purposes, that the cheques were prepared by that person and countersigned by another senior party member."
The two persons being referred to are now known to be Ms Foy and Mr Ahern. "There was no surplus and no misappropriation," Mr Ahern said. "The account as far as her excellent recollection goes was normally short, not the other way around. I have spoken to her at some length."
Yet, as Mr Coughlan has pointed out, Ms Foy's memory has not proved excellent. She cannot remember the names of the people who contributed to the late Mr Brian Lenihan's medical fund. She cannot remember transactions which were much larger than the sums normally lodged or drawn on the account, and were for purposes that were out of the ordinary.
Mr Coughlan asked her what she had said to Mr Ahern that made him say she had an excellent recollection. However, Ms Foy said she couldn't remember in detail what they had discussed.
Mr Larry Goodman gave evidence concerning a contribution for £25,000 which he made towards the medical fund for the late Mr Lenihan in 1989. The contribution, he said, followed a request from the late Mr Peter Hanley. He personally wrote out the cheque, which was made out to "Fianna Fail [Party Leadership Fund]".
Mr Goodman said he had never heard of the party leadership fund before, and thought he might have received instructions from the Taoiseach's office in relation to the payee. Ms Foy said she never contacted Mr Goodman with this instruction, and the person who spearheaded the fund-raising, Mr Paul Kavanagh, has said he did not know what account the money was being put into.
The cheque was written on June 13th, 1989. It was put in the post and was not banked until about a week later. On June 16th, 1989, a cheque made out to cash was written on the leadership account and lodged to an account in Guinness & Mahon bank.
The cheque was signed by Mr Haughey and Mr Ahern. It was the tribunal's discovery of this cheque which led to its examination of the Fianna Fail party leader's account and its discovery of funds other than the State allowance passing through the account.