Loan move not in bank index

No entry was made in the Central Bank's index of files of an application from Mr Charles Haughey in December 1982 for permission to take out a £400,000 loan in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Brian Halpin, assistant director-general with the Central Bank, said no index entry was created because of the sensitivity and "newsworthiness" of the application.

Although all transactions carried out by the bank were treated as confidential and on a need-to-know basis, Mr Haughey's application was treated particularly tightly because of his status as Taoiseach or former Taoiseach, he said.

Mr Haughey's application was granted and the file covering the loan was kept in a private office, separately from the bank files.

The tribunal heard from Ms Sandra Kells, financial director with Guinness & Mahon, that £45,000 in cash was delivered to Guinness & Mahon bank, College Green, Dublin, on July 31st, 1987, to pay interest on a loan taken out for the benefit of Mr Haughey. A further cash payment of £5,000 was made the following month.

The loan, taken out in 1983 for £120,000, was in the name of the late Mr P.V. Doyle but was for the benefit of Mr Haughey. Four lodgments were made to the loan account between 1983 and 1988 to pay off accumulating interest.

The lodgments were: £52,000 on April 30th, 1985; £10,000 on June 9th, 1987; £45,000 on July 31st, 1987; and £5,000 on August 24th, 1987.

Ms Kells told Ms Jackie O'Brien, for the tribunal, that the £52,000 lodgment was a transfer from an account in the name of Amiens Securities Ltd, a company controlled by the late Mr Desmond Traynor. This account was one from which £75,000 was transferred to Celtic Helicopters in March 1985.

The payment of £9,966 came from another Amiens account to which a cheque from Mr Doyle, written out to Mr Traynor and for the same amount, had earlier been credited.

The loan was eventually cleared in February 1988 with a transfer of £126,312 from an account in the name of Amiens Securities. Amiens Securities was in turn paid by the Doyle Hotels holding company, which was in turn compensated by Mr Doyle's estate.

The Doyle Hotels lodgment was for £150,230 and the funds were used to clear the 1983 loan account and a second loan taken out by Mr Doyle two years later for £50,000.

The £150,230 paid by the Doyle Group to clear the two accounts was £24,265 short of the total required, and the difference was paid by the Amiens account. The original source of this amount has not yet been established.

Ms Kells also gave evidence about the Amiens account from which Celtic Helicopter funds came.