Correspondence concerning the Ansbacher deposits was still being sent from the offices of Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) after the late Mr Des Traynor was replaced as chairman by Mr Tony Barry.
This disclosure yesterday during the evidence of Mr Traynor's former personal secretary, Ms Joan Williams, will be heard with dismay by the plc, which is much troubled by the ongoing embarrassment caused to it by its links to the secretive accounts.
A letter from Ms Williams to Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB), authorising the withdrawal of £20,000 from the Ansbacher deposits in December 1994, was produced during her evidence.
The withdrawal was for the bill-paying service used by the former Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey.
The letter came from Fitzwilliam Square and the cheque, Ms Williams said, would have been collected from IIB by a CRH driver and kept by her at the CRH offices at Fitzwilliam Square pending collection.
Since it was disclosed by the McCracken tribunal that Mr Traynor, from his appointment as chairman in 1987 up to his death in May 1994, ran his secret financial service from the CRH offices at Fitzwilliam Square, the plc has been fighting a losing public relations battle.
The biggest blow was the statement to the High Court in September that more than half the company's board in 1987 had connections with the accounts. CRH is one of the State's largest companies and its directors some of the most highly regarded businessmen.
In recent weeks, evidence has been heard of large amounts of cash being held at the CRH chairman's office for persons making withdrawals from their offshore accounts. The Fianna Fail TD, Mr Denis Foley, collected £10,000 from Mr Traynor in the CRH office in 1993.
Ms Williams said Mr Padraig Collery, who had no connection with CRH, had a key to the CRH building and would come in at night or at the weekends to work on administering the deposits. The building was home to the chairman's office, the company secretary and the registrar's office. She assumed the company knew about Mr Collery's visits.
After Mr Traynor's death, Mr Collery continued to visit the CRH building. Some time before October 1994, Mr Collery removed over a weekend a filing cabinet and a computer from the building. In October, the new chairman, Mr Barry, moved into the Fitzwilliam Square offices. In December 1994, Ms Williams was still sending Ansbacher correspondence, at Mr Collery's request, with a return address of 42 Fitzwilliam Square. This practice seems to have ended in January 1995.
That Christmas, Ms Williams got a "Christmas gift" lodged to the account she had in the offshore deposits. It was not pay for her services, she insisted, but a "gift". She had received a number of gifts over the years, some substantial. The Christmas 1994 gift was the most substantial, as it came at the end of her involvement. No figures were mentioned.
Ms Williams said she once withdrew approximately £7,000 to buy a car. She did this through Mr Collery, so it was, presumably, after Mr Traynor's death. She was told verbally by Mr Collery of the Christmas 1994 gift some time after the event. A year or so later, she got the balance in her account, but she has never been given a balance since.
She was not curious, as she felt the money was "out of reach". She had felt this, she said, ever since the McCracken tribunal first discovered the accounts. "I always looked on it as money I never had, so I don't miss it," she told the tribunal.