FF lawyers queried Haughey on leader's funds

Lawyers for Fianna Fail wrote to Mr Charles Haughey last March asking him if he had got money for the party which he had not passed on.

A letter, by Frank Ward & Co, solicitors, marked "Strictly Private and Confidential", was read into the record at the tribunal yesterday.

Under the heading "Contributions", the letter requested the former Taoiseach and party leader to:

"1. Please confirm that no monies received by you from 1979 to the date of today's letter (other than those forwarded by you to my client) were received by you for the benefit of the Fianna Fail Party.

"2. If you have received funds intended for Fianna Fail but not forwarded to the party, I would be obliged if you could confirm, in writing, this fact and in addition furnish the following information:

(I) When did you receive such funds? (II) What was the amount or amounts of such funds? (III) Please identify the donor or donors of such funds (IV) Please outline the circumstances whereby you received such funds."

The letter referred to a £25,000 cheque drawn on the party leader's allowance in 1989 which ended up the Guinness & Mahon account from which he personally benefited.

It asked Mr Haughey what use he ail leader made of this money, and the circumstances in which the money ended up in the Guinness & Mahon account. He was also asked "how such use conferred a benefit on the Fianna Fail party and was a proper and appropriate use of the leader's allowance account."

Mr Haughey's solicitors, Ivor Fitzpatrick and Co, wrote back to ask "precisely for whom" they were acting, "whether it is the Fianna Fail organisation . . . the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party, or some other branch of Fianna Fail".

Mr Frank Ward replied to Mr Haughey's solicitors to inform them that he acted "on behalf of Fianna Fail as defined by its constitution and rules, with which no doubt you are familiar".

Mr Haughey's solicitors eventually responded to the Fianna Fail lawyers' original letter by saying it appeared the matters raised in the letter "may be the subject of an inquiry by Mr Justice Moriarty under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act, 1921-1979. in these circumstances it would be inappropriate to comment on these matters until the Moriarty tribunal is completed".