Revenue officials to face Haughey questions

The Moriarty tribunal is to examine the Revenue Commissioners' failure to discover secret payments made to Mr Charles Haughey during his political career.

In public hearings expected to last the rest of this week several serving and former Revenue officers, including the former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Seamus Pairceir, are to give evidence about how Mr Haughey's affairs were handled.

Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said the Revenue believed Mr Haughey's income in the 1980s came from his political work.

He further revealed yesterday that Mr Haughey sought a PAYE refund in April 1981, just a year after receiving payments totalling £750,000 to pay off his overdraft with AIB.

Mr Haughey was Taoiseach at the time.

Haughey Boland & Co wrote to the Revenue on his behalf seeking a tax rebate of £13,868. They suggested the rebate be used to settle a Capital Gains Tax bill arising from the 1977 sale by Mr Haughey of a stud farm in Co Meath.

Despite Mr Pairceir learning later from the receiver to the Gallagher Group, Mr Laurence Crowley, that Mr Haughey had made £300,000 in 1980 from a "land deal" which the Revenue suspected was a "sham", no examination of where this money had gone was initiated.

Again, when Mr Haughey settled the tax bill arising from this and the stud farm sale, the Revenue made no effort to establish where the £102,330 involved had come from.

In fact the bulk of it had come from the account used by Haughey Boland to settle bills incurred by Mr Haughey.

This account, if investigated, would have disclosed the extent of Mr Haughey's outgoings.

Mr Haughey's settlement of his tax bill came six to seven years after the principal gain had occurred, yet involved no interest or penalty. Mr Christopher Clayton, chief inspector of taxes, said this was not unusual in capital gains tax cases at that time. He said the final part of the Haughey payment had come only after the Revenue had threatened legal action.

He agreed with Mr Healy who said: "You spoke by telephone with Mr Pat Kenny of Haughey Boland & Co on the 20th of February, 1987, and you told him that the outstanding matter should be paid without delay, that the matter should be attended to before Mr Haughey's expected election as Taoiseach on the 10th of March, 1987."

The final payment was made in January 1988.