Reaction:Kerry businessman Xavier McAuliffe, owner of the Spectra photographic business, rejected the tribunal's finding that his £50,000 investment in Celtic Helicopters amounted to an "indirect payment" to Charles Haughey.
Taking issue with the tribunal's statement that he demonstrated "more or less complete indifference" about his investment in the company, he insisted that such remarks were at variance with the evidence and not consistent with its questioning.
"I was never ever asked any of these questions at the tribunal," he said.
On the "indirect payments" to Mr Haughey, he said: "There is nothing in it whatsoever as regards paying anything to anybody." He went on: "Basically, I invested in Celtic Helicopters at the time. I had a helicopter. I was having it serviced there."
Mr McAuliffe said he did not regard himself as a shareholder in Celtic but said he continued to do business with the company for a "good price".
AIB declined to comment on the tribunal report, which found the bank gave an "indirect payment" of some £393,000 to Mr Haughey when it forgave some of his debts.
Neither was there any comment from the Agricultural Credit Corporation (ACC), the former State-owned bank now part of Dutch group Rabobank.
The tribunal says Mr Haughey had an "unusual relationship" with the ACC, with which he had an annual loan that was paid off in 1987. At his request, additional measures were taken to ensure the confidentiality of his affairs. The ACC also refrained from registering particulars of a chattel mortgage executed by Mr Haughey as security for his borrowings, thereby rendering his borrowings unsecured.
"The tribunal believes that it was inappropriate for Mr Haughey to seek these special privileges by reference to his office, and that it was equally inappropriate for the corporation, as a State-owned institution, to facilitate Mr Haughey in that regard," the tribunal says.
The Central Bank & Financial Services Authority of Ireland said it had no specific comment on the tribunal's statement that firmer and more concerted action was required from the Central Bank in relation to Guinness & Mahon Bank, in which Mr Haughey held accounts. "The system and the legislative basis of financial regulation is very different now to that which was in place during the period covered by the interim report," it said.
