Back in the 1980s when Mr Charles Haughey was leader of Fianna Fail, the best way to get a job was to be the Taoiseach's son.
The Moriarty tribunal has already heard evidence of how some of the most powerful business figures in the State quickly became involved when Mr Ciaran Haughey wanted to establish Celtic Helicopters in 1985.
The late Mr Des Traynor collected £80,000 and secured a loan for a similar amount from Guinness & Mahon bank. Mr Ciaran Haughey invested £60.
When the company made a bad business decision in the early 1990s and found itself in dire financial straits, a further £290,000 was raised by Mr Traynor.
Mr Mike Murphy, of Mike Murphy Insurance Brokers, organised a loan to help Celtic Helicopters pay for the insurance he was providing, and then proceeded to pay off the loan himself.
Now the tribunal has begun to look into the finances of Feltrim Mining plc, which, according to Mr Trevor Watkins, the company's former finance director, was basically established to provide Mr Conor Haughey with a job.
Again a circle of business figures with associations with Mr Charles Haughey became involved. The company was floated on the stock exchange, a move which had disastrous consequences for many small shareholders who became involved.
Yesterday, Mr Bernard Cahill, chairman of Aer Lingus and Greencore, told how he received a telephone call from the then Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, around the time of Feltrim's incorporation in March 1988, asking him if he would become chairman of the company. He acceded to the request.
In the early 1990s there was a controversy involving Mr Cahill and Mr Haughey, centring on the allegation that Mr Haughey had told Mr Cahill to appoint Mr Dermot Desmond's company, NCB, advisers to the 1991 privatisation of Irish Sugar.
Mr Desmond invested £26,667 in Feltrim Mining in 1990 and made a £55,000 loan available to the company in mid-1991. He also, it emerged yesterday, guaranteed a five-year loan taken out by the company in January 1991, a time when the company had accumulated losses of £3.5 million and had ceased trading. The loan was eventually paid off.
Mr Murphy, who is a hugely successful insurance broker and who numbered Mr Larry Goodman among his clients, allowed Feltrim to run up a bill for the insurance cover he was providing. He wasn't paid until after Mr Conor Haughey's involvement in the company had ceased.
Feltrim was established at the suggestion of Mr Conor Haughey, a geology graduate, and was floated on the stock exchange on April 1st, 1988.
Mr Haughey received advice on the flotation from Mr James Stafford, a millionaire businessman from Co Wexford. Mr Stafford invested £100,000 in the venture, as did another businessman, Mr Emmet O'Connell.
Mr Conor Haughey himself invested £50,000. However, this money came from work a company he controlled, Geo Engineering Ltd, did for Feltrim. Mr Conor Haughey was also given shares in lieu of expenses he incurred, with the original funding for these expenses coming from his father.
The auditors to the company were Deloitte & Touche, auditors to Celtic Helicopters and the company of which Haughey Boland now forms a part.
Company secretarial services were provided by a subsidiary of Deloitte & Touche. Representatives of the company gave evidence yesterday but were not asked how much it was paid in fees by Feltrim.
Mr Conor Haughey, as managing director, received a salary of about £20,000 to £25,000, according to Mr Watkins.
The shares were floated at 40p, rose to 80p on the first day, and fell steadily thereafter. Some 600 to 700 shareholders became involved.
No one made any money until after 1992, when the company was taken over and Mr Conor Haughey's involvement with it ceased. At the time the company was taken over, it had accumulated debts of £3.8 million.