The Irish Permanent Building Society wrote two cheques for a total of £100,000 which were made out to Fianna Fail Fail but were subsequently lodged in the Haughey leader's allowance account at a time when the party had made no appeal for funds, the Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Sean Fleming TD, who supervised the operation of Fianna Fail accounts, said the party was always in need of funds. However, it would not have made an appeal in 1986, when the two cheques were written, as it would have militated against its fundraising drive for the following year's general election.
There was no general or special appeal for funds "in or around that time at all", he said, adding that 1986 was "in all my years dealing with Fianna Fail . . . the only year Fianna Fail was actually in the black".
A former director of the Irish Permanent, Mr George Tracey, said that in hindsight, he was surprised the two cheques were made payable to the party in a non-election year. Mr Tracy had countersigned the cheques with Dr Edmund Farrell.
Meanwhile, Mr Fleming confirmed Fianna Fail had no record of receiving the cheques - each for £50,000 and written on March 19th and October 19th, 1986 - or a third Irish Permanent cheque for £40,000 on August 16th, 1991. All were made out to the Fianna Fail party, endorsed by Mr Haughey, and lodged in the Haughey, Ahern, MacSharry leader's allowance account.
Mr. Fleming noted "there is no need whatever for any trustee or anybody in the party to endorse the back of a cheque", adding he could not give any reason as to why the cheques ended up where they did.
In relation to the third cheque, Mr. Fleming confirmed that it was close in proximity to local elections held on June 27th, 1991. A letter from Fianna Fail headquarters appealing for funds was shown to the tribunal in which donors were asked to make a "generous contribution" to the election fund.
The letter was signed by Mr Haughey and said "please send your subscription to me personally at Fianna Fail headquarters, 13 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2".
Mr Fleming said letters addressed to Mr Haughey would have been opened by staff members at party headquarters and appropriate cheques would have been lodged in the party account with the consequent issuing of a matching receipt.
The only exception to this case was if an envelope marked "strictly personal and confidential" arrived in a year such as 1986 when there was no appeal for funds and there was no reason to suspect a cheque was in it, it might have been sent directly to Mr Haughey's office.
Mr Tracey told the tribunal that the two 1986 cheques were drawn on what was known as a private bank account from which salary and expenses cheques were drawn, and a variety of other sundry titled cheques. He said any decisions about contributions to political parties would have been made by Dr Farrell.