Yesterday the Moriarty tribunal heard evidence that the former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey requested £5,000 from Dr John O'Connell during a meeting in Mr Haughey's offices in Leinster House in March 1985. It is the first instance in this or in the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal, where evidence has been heard of Mr Haughey being directly involved in soliciting payments.
Dr O'Connell was a Labour Party TD from 1965 to 1981, an independent from 1981 to 1985, during which period he was Ceann Comhairle, a Fianna Fail TD from 1985 to 1987, a member of the Seanad (Mr Haughey's nominee) from 1987 to 1989 and a Fianna Fail TD from 1989 until he resigned his seat in February 1993. He was Minister for Health from March 1992 to February 1993, having been appointed by Mr Albert Reynolds.
He told Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that in March 1985, two months after he became a Fianna Fail TD, he was called to Mr Haughey's office and asked "to make a contribution or if I had any friends who would make a contribution". Mr Haughey told him he was asking "a few friends" for £5,000 each for his son's company. Fianna Fail was in opposition at the time.
Dr O'Connell wrote a cheque for £5,000 to Celtic Helicopters. "I had joined the party in January of 1985 and this was March, and I presumed that a lot of members of the party had been asked to contribute."
In early 1992, on the day Mr Haughey resigned as Taoiseach, Dr O'Connell went to Mr Haughey's office in Government Buildings. "When I went up he was very upset about the . . . about his position that day."
Mr Haughey said "we would" like to buy back the shares in Celtic Helicopters. Dr O'Connell was surprised, as he thought the £5,000 had been a contribution rather than an investment. He told Mr Haughey he would want £15,000 for the shares and the deal was agreed.
However, the money was not forthcoming. In March 1992, Dr O'Connell's solicitors wrote to Mr Ciaran Haughey, seeking a share certificate for the shares. This, Dr O'Connell told his counsel, Mr Brian O`Moore, was a "device". Mr Haughey was told of the letter. In October 1992 a cheque for £15,000 was given to Dr O'Connell by Mr Haughey at a Fianna Fail convention in Donnycarney, Dublin, where Mr Haughey's son Sean was putting his name forward for selection as a party candidate.
The £15,000 seems to have been linked to the Ansbacher deposits. Dr O'Connell said he never had any funds in these deposits. There was no evidence given as to why Mr Haughey would have wanted to clear up matters to do with Celtic Helicopters on the day he was resigning as Taoiseach.
Mr John Barnacle, a director of Celtic Helicopters, said he and Mr Ciaran Haughey invested £60 each in the company when it was being set up. From evidence it seems the company was established in 1985. Guinness & Mahon bank provided a loan of £80,000. "Other funding will be provided by equity investors for £80,000," a G&M memo noted at the time.
"These outside investors who include Seamus Purcell, Joe Malone and P.V. Doyle will own 40 per cent of the company, C. Haughey and J. Barnacle the other 60 per cent." Mr Martin Lanigan O'Keeffe, from G&M, was involved in the deal.
None of the investors have any return "as yet", Mr Barnacle said. The late Mr Des Traynor, a former director of G&M, seems to have been involved in organising finance for the company. By 1992, debts were threatening to drag the company under. Mr Traynor organised new investors, who put in over £290,000.
The investors were: Mr John Byrne (£47,532); Mr Xavier McAuliffe (£50,000); the late Mr Pat Butler, of Butler Engineering, Portarlington (£25,000); Mr Guy Snowdon (£67,000). Mr Michael Murphy, an insurance broker from Trinity Street, Dublin, was involved in locating £100,000.
This £100,000 may have been part of £180,000 contained in three cheques made out to cash by Mr Ben Dunne in November 1992. Mr Dunne was asked by Mr James Connolly SC, for the Revenue Commissioners, who was he trying to hide these cheques from: "I would have said my family, but I would have to say, knowing me, it would have also included maybe, the Revenue."