Haughey let John Byrne's hotel operating firm have tax free status

Prince's Investments Ltd, the hotel operating company part-owned by the property developer Mr John Byrne, paid no tax on its profits in 1998 because of special tax designation granted by the Haughey government 10 years earlier.

The company also received Government grants totalling £800,000 in the past two years. The money was allocated to assist the upgrading of the Brandon Hotel, Tralee, Co Kerry, and the construction of a large conference centre beside the hotel. The conference centre is on the site given special tax designation in 1988.

Prince's Investments made a profit of £177,123 in the year to October 31st, 1998 but no tax was paid "due to the utilisation of double rent allowances on properties rented by the company".

The company operates the Brandon Hotel and the Brandon Court Hotel also in Tralee. The Brandon Court was built on part of the site granted special tax designation by the Haughey government. The largest room in the conference centre built on another part of the site has a capacity for up to 1,200 people.

Princes Investments lost £98,717 in 1999, according to audited accounts lodged with the Companies Office last month. The accounts note the £800,000 in government grants. A spokesman for the Shannon Development Authority said this money was allocated by an independent management board set up to appraise projects under the operational programme for tourism, 1994 to 1999. The money comes from the EU and through the Department of Tourism to the authority.

In 1988 the Haughey government gave urban renewal designation to a site centred on the Brandon Hotel even though the site had not been recommended for such designation by the Tralee Urban District Council. The Minister for the Environment at the time was Mr Padraig Flynn. Urban tax renewal confers 10 years of tax benefits from first use of the building on the designated site.

Last week the Moriarty tribunal heard how money given by Prince's Investments to Guinness & Mahon bank in July 1987 was lodged to an account controlled by the late Mr Des Traynor. At least £40,000 was subsequently transferred for Mr Haughey's use.

Mr Byrne told the tribunal the £260,000 given to Guinness & Mahon in 1987 was to repay a loan due to the bank by Prince's Investments. However the loan had been paid off two years earlier, with money from the Ansbacher deposits. Mr Bryne said he knew nothing of this. He also said he had never knowingly given a penny to Mr Haughey.

The directors of Prince's Investments are: Mr John Byrne, Simmonscourt Ave, Ballsbridge, Dublin; Mr Thomas Clifford, of the Kerries, Tralee, Co Kerry; and Ms Margaret Clifford, of the Spa, Tralee, Co Kerry. The three directors each own one-third of the company.

The profit and loss account for the year ended October 31st, 1999 shows an accumulated profit of £2.9 million. The company had a turnover of £3.68 million, but returned a loss of £98,717. From the profit and loss account the main factors for the loss, as against the profit the previous year, appear to be staff costs, which increased by more than £100,000, and depreciation, which increased by £80,000.

The company had bank and cash balances of £363,145 on October 31st 1999, as against £616,211 the previous year. The notes to the accounts show that C Clifford & Sons, a wholesaler of which Mr Clifford is a director, supplied goods worth £416,000 during 1999.

The company's indebtedness is given as £2.2 million. Benthorp Ltd, a company formally called The Brandon Hotel Ltd and now in voluntary liquidation, shares directors with Prince's Investments. It has an issued share capital of £2.2 million.

Ironically a Guinness & Mahon subsidiary, Erin Executor & Trustee Co Ltd, holds 39,700 of the Benthorp shares, according to Benthorp's 1996 annual return, the latest filed in the Companies Office. One of the two directors of Erin Executor, is Ms Sandra Kells, a finance director with Guinness & Mahon who has conducted investigative work on behalf of the Moriarty Tribunal. The investigations were into financial dealings involving Mr Byrne, Guinness & Mahon, and the late Mr Traynor.