FF stands by its friends, no matter what

As I was saying a few weeks ago, the boys are back in town. Just in case we hadn't got the message, it has been underlined in the last days of the outgoing government and the first days of the new one. The message is that the enemies of the party will be vanquished, and its friends, however much of an embarrassment they may seem from time to time, will be rewarded.

Never mind the tribunals, never mind the little storms like the current fuss over the Ansbacher report, feel the long hand of loyalty. True loyalty, moreover, is allegiance to the banished king, the Boss himself.

Paul Kavanagh was Fianna Fáil's chief fund-raiser in the Haughey years. He brought in over £1.7 million for Haughey's 1989 general election campaign. He was the man delegated in 1989 to raise £200,000 for Brian Lenihan's liver transplant. Although Paul Kavanagh clearly undertook this task in good faith, it is also clear that all but £80,000 of the fund he raised was used by Haughey for purposes other than Lenihan's operation.

The circumstances surrounding some of these donations are still very much open questions for the Moriarty tribunal. In 1991, for example, Mr Kavanagh collected a cheque for £25,000 from the property developer, Philip Monahan. While Mr Kavanagh was sure this money was solicited for the Lenihan fund, Philip Monahan told Mr Justice Moriarty that he was "absolutely sure I didn't pay it for the Lenihan fund".

His understanding was that the money was for Fianna Fáil: "They seemed to have very strong collectors in the Fianna Fáil party and they'd put the thumb on you and say you have to contribute. 'The Boss says you have to contribute'."

Also at issue for the Moriarty tribunal is the donation of £100,000 which Paul Kavanagh solicited from his namesake, the property developer, Mark Kavanagh, in 1989. This donation was given in the unusual form of one cheque and three drafts for £25,000 each.

The drafts were made out to cash and delivered to Charles Haughey personally on the morning of the 1989 general election. As Bertie Ahern discovered when he was the new party leader in 1996, Mark Kavanagh was not given a receipt for his huge donation.

THE cheque was given by Haughey to the party's accountant, Seán Fleming. The drafts were lodged with Guinness and Mahon bank, presumably by Haughey's bagman, Des Traynor. In conjunction with another donation from Michael Smurfit, these transactions resulted in Fianna Fáil receiving just £75,000 from a total of £160,000 donated. The rest was used to fund Haughey's personal expenditure.

It might be imagined that Paul Kavanagh's role in incidents such as these would be regarded as something of an embarrassment. Although he himself acted in good faith, significant sums which he raised for Fianna Fáil never reached the party.

It might be thought, too, that one outgoing minister would feel a particular hurt. Mary O'Rourke's enormous affection for her late brother, Brian Lenihan, has never been in doubt. A less forgiving person might bear some grudge against a man who, however inadvertently, had raised money for her brother which ended up in someone else's pocket.

Yet, on her last day in office as minister for public enterprise, Mary O'Rourke appointed Paul Kavanagh to the board of An Post. There is speculation that he will be made chairman of the company when the job becomes vacant at the end of the year.

Nor is this a one-off incident. The pattern of allegiance to old friends is well established. Bertie Ahern was willing to countenance the appointment of his friend, Joe Burke, as chairman of the Dublin Port Company last month without worrying about possible reminders of the Sheedy affair, or about the fact that Joe Burke is likely to be an important witness when the Flood tribunal comes to deal with the allegations made by the developer, Tom Gilmartin.

P.J. Mara, Haughey's best-known sidekick, was given great public prominence in his role as director of the party's recent general election campaign. He, too, has featured heavily at a tribunal, in his case Mr Justice Flood's investigation of Ray Burke.

HE FAILED to disclose all of his bank accounts to the tribunal when first asked to do so, and disclosed two offshore Isle of Man accounts less than a week before he gave evidence. He acknowledged that his tardiness was "deficient" and "negligent". He also acknowledged that he had set up an offshore account because he had "bad thoughts" at the time, although he later thought better of it.

It is not unreasonable to suggest, therefore, that the nexus of power which existed under Haughey has been largely re-created. Since the outcome of the election suggests that the public in general is not all that bothered about the past, there is no great need to pretend otherwise.

All the revelations, all the occasional explosions of outrage, have perhaps done no more than strengthen the bonds of loyalty. The old order has been tempered in the fire and come through it all tougher and sharper than ever before. If the Ansbacher report requires a few distancing manoeuvres, they will be merely temporary and tactical.