The former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry, gave evidence for four days in June 1999, at the end of which an "extraordinary mystery" persisted which has yet to be publicly explained.
Mr Lowry, bankers and other witnesses gave evidence concerning Mr Lowry's affairs. He gave the tribunal a "worldwide waiver" to investigate bank accounts belonging to him or members of his family.
He said in evidence to the tribunal that he had "as I believe the tribunal will accept, co-operated fully with the tribunal since it was established and indeed also co-operated with the McCracken tribunal."
Mr Lowry's affairs have been examined by the Revenue Commissioners and the tribunal during the past four years and have also been scrutinised by accountants engaged by Mr Lowry himself.
It now seems a new offshore account which held money for Mr Lowry is being investigated by the tribunal and is likely to be dealt with in public evidence in the near future.
The account is understood to have been in the Isle of Man and to have been in use in late 1996, around the time revelations about Mr Lowry's relationship with Mr Ben Dunne brought about the former's departure from office.
Mr Lowry received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Mr Ben Dunne/Dunnes Stores in the late 1980s and early 1990s for refrigeration work Mr Lowry's company, Garuda Ltd, conducted for the retailer.
Some of this money was deposited in offshore accounts for Mr Lowry. However, for £65,000 sterling there is a 12month gap in the money trail. In other words, nobody has been able to say where the money was for this period.
Mr Lowry received the money from the Dunnes group during the period December 1988 to January 1991. In evidence he said all his bank accounts had been disclosed to the tribunal and the £65,000 was "somewhere in the AIB financial system" up to January 1991. The tribunal failed to discover where the money had been.
Mr Lowry had accounts with AIB Dame Street, and these formed part of 19 accounts which he had and the tribunal examined. It was Mr Lowry's evidence that in January 1991, when he wanted to open an offshore account, he was directed by AIB Dame Street to go to AIB O'Connell Street.
An account was opened with AIB Jersey and a draft, for sterling £55,000, was sent from the O'Connell Street branch by way of an opening deposit. Mr Lowry said he brought no cash to O'Connell Street when opening the account.
The £10,000 sterling which remained from Mr Lowry's earnings from Dunnes at this stage, after he had opened his offshore account, was used to settle a debt with AIB Finance, Mr Lowry said.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said the question of how the £55,000 sterling draft was paid for was an "extraordinary mystery" given that there was no record of the movement of the money to O'Connell Street and no definite recollection on Mr Lowry's part of the transaction.
What happened after the money was lodged offshore was equally odd. The £55,000 was put into a three-month deposit account. It was redeposited for three months in April 1999, and in July 1999 a withdrawal of £58,337.28 sterling was made. The cheque was sent to AIB O'Connell Street, where Mr Lowry had no account.
The money then stayed somewhere "within the AIB system", according to Mr Lowry, between July and December 1991. In December 1991 it formed part of a deposit of £100,000 sterling Mr Lowry made to AIB Jersey, this time sending the money from AIB Dame Street. All this money came from Dunnes Stores.
The account now being examined by the tribunal is understood to be in the Isle Of Man, where Mr Lowry had a number of accounts which were examined by the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals.
The late Mr David Austin, who reportedly gave Mr Lowry a loan of £150,000 in late 1996 which was lodged to the Isle of Man account, had an account in Jersey.