Lodgments exceeded FF allowances

Lodgments to the Fianna Fail party leader's allowance current account between 1984 and 1991 exceeded the total amount the State paid to the party under the scheme by more than £500,000, the tribunal heard.

In 1989 alone, the money lodged in the account exceeded the allowance paid to the party that year by £220,302.28. In a period of just over a month between May 25th and June 29th of that year, £188,872 was lodged to the leader's allowance current account at a time when the instalments of the allowance paid into the account were between £8,200 and £8,800 per month.

The excess £180,000 was lodged at a time when funds were being raised for the late Brian Lenihan's liver operation in the Mayo Clinic in the US.

A total of £54,498.58 was paid from the party leader's account to the Mayo Clinic in 1989. On September 29th, £4,933.59 was paid to the Department of Foreign Affairs from the leader's account, and a further £5,073.53 was paid to the Department on December 28th of that year.

In March 1990, a withdrawal of £5,727.23 funded three international cheques. One, for $6,810, was made payable to the Mayo Clinic, the second for $1,885.60 was payable to Calor Hotel, and the third for $235.75 was made out to Gold Crown Limousine Services.

In February 1991, £12,914.50 was paid from the account to the Department of Defence, "in discharge of sums incurred in connection with the travel arrangements of the late Mr Lenihan".

The account, held in the Baggot Street branch of AIB, was in the names of the party leader, Mr Charles Haughey, the former minister for finance and European commissioner, Mr Ray MacSharry, and the present Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.

The tribunal had earlier heard that Mr MacSharry rarely co-signed cheques drawn on the account and that Mr Haughey and Mr Ahern were normally the two signatories.

Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, went through a large number of withdrawals from and lodgments to the account with the manager of the branch, Mr Alan Kelly.

Mr Kelly agreed with Ms O'Brien that there was "a pattern of regular, in most instances monthly, lodgments" to the account. However, the tribunal had asked him to deal with "certain exceptions to these lodgments".

He agreed withdrawals were "generally typical of an operating account, with frequent uneven debits of less than £1,000", but there were also a number of exceptions to this pattern.

In late 1989 and early 1990, two payments were made from the party leader's allowance account which appear to have gone to Mr John Ellis.

On December 12th, 1989, £12,500 was drawn from the account. Mr Ellis received a similar amount the following day.

On March 22nd, 1990, another £13,600 was drawn from the account. Mr Ellis received the same sum from Mr Haughey that day.

There were large discrepancies between the total leadership allowance figure and the total lodgments to the account in other years.

In 1984, lodgments to the account exceeded the total leadership allowance for that year by £46,000. While lodgments were "roughly equivalent" to the allowance in 1985, there was an excess of almost £134,000 in 1986.

In 1987, the excess was £34,460, while in 1988 the amount lodged was close to the total leader's allowance figure for the year. After the peak of 1989, there was another small excess in 1990, when £119,207 was lodged to the account even though the allowance totalled just £113,207. There was a substantial discrepancy in 1991, when £223,560 was lodged to the account in a year when the total allowance was £123,137.

The account was dormant from June 29th, 1992, and was closed on January 22nd, 1993.

In 1984 - the earliest year for which there were statements available - there were a number of transfers to the party leader's allowance account from "a deposit account maintained by the branch also in the names of Mr Haughey, Mr Ahern and Mr MacSharry".

The first transfer from the deposit account, a sum of £10,000, was made on February 28th that year.

Ms O'Brien said there was a "healthy credit balance" of more than £11,000 in the party leader's allowance account at that time, and the only apparent purpose of the transfer was to meet the debit of £12,310.45 taken from the account the same day.

Three further transfers were made from the account that year. A sum of £6,000 was transferred on April 13th, £10,000 on May 11th and £20,000 on August 13th. Ms O'Brien said when the deposit account opened, it had a balance of £65,000, which was "drawn down primarily in 1984" but also in 1991.

By January 1992 it was "pretty well reduced . . . towards zero". The account closed in January 1993.