An insurance broker for Celtic Helicopters has told the Moriarty tribunal that companies owned by Mr Larry Goodman accounted for "about a third" of his beef-related business, the sector which made up half of all his clients.
Questioned by Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Mike Murphy reiterated that it was fear of losing customers if Celtic Helicopters went bust which had persuaded him to pay the company's insurance premiums. However, asked if it was the risk of losing the Goodman account in particular which was "exercising his mind", Mr Murphy said he feared losing any of his beef customers.
Mr Murphy added: "I don't know if you realise the power of Mr Haughey at that time." Asked by Mr Coughlan if he felt Mr Haughey could have caused him to lose clients, Mr Murphy replied that he did.
He also agreed with Mr Coughlan that, having arranged a £92,500 loan in 1983 to fund the company's insurance bill, he then paid off the monthly repayments of over £9,000 each. He accepted that Celtic Helicopters was at times "massively in debt" to his company, but added that at one point, in 1993, "they were in credit overall".
Asked how he had produced a hand-written schedule of helicopter use by his own company, which had been offset against the debt, Mr Murphy said he had compiled it from notes of meetings and "bits and pieces" on his desk. Asked if there was any other documentation relating to the flights, the total bill for which came to £33,665, Mr Murphy said: "I never got invoices, no."
Counsel put it to him that the bill appeared to be "just another form of payment to the company", but Mr Murphy said he did not agree. "We did the actual flying and had an agreement with the company for a running account."
Mr Murphy said he had no documentation from Celtic Helicopters to acknowledge a £100,000 investment he had arranged for the firm. All he had was a receipt showing the payment of the sum to an Ansbacher account in Zurich and his own handwritten notes.
Mr Coughlan asked whether he thought it strange that he was asked to make the payment into an offshore account when he knew Celtic Helicopters did not do business overseas. Mr Murphy replied: "It never crossed my mind."
He said he had never questioned the instructions of the Celtic Helicopters accountant who gave him the details of the Ansbacher account. This was Mr Paul Carty, now a partner at Deloitte and Touche.
Mr Murphy told the tribunal that his file relating to the investment had gone missing from his office.
Later Mr John Barnicle, a director of Celtic Helicopters, confirmed that he did not invoice Mr Murphy for any flights, which were debited to his running account. He said Mr Murphy was the only customer who was not invoiced. However, none of the flights was free of charge, and Mr Murphy understood this.