The Moriarty Tribunal has undertaken a detailed examination of files held in the Central Bank on exchange control issues. The examination is understood to have taken place in recent weeks and follows the serving of an order by the Tribunal on the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, seeking access to all exchange control documentation between 1954 and 1992.

The Central Bank acts as an agent of the Minister for Finance in monitoring exchange controls regulation. The order of discovery from the Tribunal thus applied to documentation held both in the bank and in the department itself. Meanwhile, the Tribunal is also believed to have served a discovery order on the Revenue Commissioners, seeking information relating to the former minister, Mr Michael Lowry. This information has been handed over and the Tribunal is expected to seek further information from the Revenue in the weeks ahead on the affairs of the former Taoiseach, Mr Haughey. It may also ask the Revenue to comment on the general use of offshore accounts. In relation to exchange controls, while the Tribunal team has visited the bank and looked through documentation, it has not yet gone to the Department of Finance headquarters in Merrion Street, Dublin. However documents there are being collated by officials and are likely to be examined by the Tribunal team at a later date. The long time period of files to which the Tribunal team has sought access illustrates the breath of the investigation they are conducting.

As well as the affairs of Mr Lowry and Mr Haughey, the Tribunal, under its terms of reference, is also investigating how the use of offshore accounts in general have affected the tax base.

The Minister, Mr McCreevy, has already referred Central Bank reports on the exchange control questions raised by the McCracken Tribunal to the Director of Public Prosecutions for his consideration. The Moriarty Tribunal is also likely to be looking at the role played by Mr Haughey in establishing law and regulations relating to exchange controls.