Some £40,000 worth of political donations from the Irish Permanent Building Society appear to have been used to pre-purchase flying hours for Mr Charles Haughey with Celtic Helicopters which were subsequently cancelled, the tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr John Barnicle, a director of Celtic Helicopters, said this was the only explanation he could give as to why three cheques from the society for this sum were lodged to the aviation company's bank account only for the money to be withdrawn a short time later.
All three cheques were presented for payment at Bank of Ireland, Dublin Airport, where Celtic Helicopters kept its account. All were made payable to Mr Haughey and endorsed by the former Taoiseach on the reverse side.
The first two cheques, for £20,000 and £10,000, were dated June 7th, 1989, and presented at the bank on June 13th. Account statements showed a debit of £30,000 to Celtic Helicopters on June 21st which Mr Barnicle said he believed represented a cheque repayment.
He said he had discussed the matter with his fellow director, Mr Ciaran Haughey, and they assumed the payment was for "block hours". "There could have been no other reason for Mr Haughey giving us the £30,000. At the time, it couldn't have been a loan because we were not looking for a loan so there was only one explanation and that was for flying hours."
Furthermore, he said he could only assume that the block booking of £30,000 was cancelled shortly afterwards and the sum repaid. He believed this was the case despite the fact that he had no recollection of a booking, cancellation or repayment. No company invoices had been retained from the period before 1990.
Mr Barnicle added he did not know who presented, received or lodged the cheques, or who wrote the £30,000 cheque drawn on the Celtic Helicopters account or to whom it was made out.
He said he had asked Bank of Ireland for assistance in identifying the payee on the cheque but no information had been forthcoming.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Jerry Healy, asked was it possible "somebody was simply using your account to put the money in for a few days before taking it out?"
Mr Barnicle replied: "But Mr Haughey wouldn't have been doing that . . ."
The third cheque, for £10,000, was dated October 19th, 1990, and lodged at the bank on October 22nd. Again, the money appeared to have been withdrawn a short time later by means of a £10,000 Celtic Helicopters cheque drawn on its account on November 14th.
Mr Barnicle said his evidence was the same regarding this £10,000 transaction, that neither he nor Mr Ciaran Haughey had any recollection of it but that it must have been for pre-paid hours for Mr Haughey which were subsequently cancelled.
Mr Healy asked was it the case that money came in and out of the company's account on two occasions in an 18-month period and that there was no record of any business dealing or flying hours.
Mr Barnicle replied: "Correct".
He later confirmed that Celtic Helicopters received a £5,750 cheque in 1991 from the Fianna Fail leader's allowance account. While neither he nor Mr Ciaran Haughey had any recollection of the cheque, dated September 26th, he said he assumed it was for flying hours for Mr Haughey while the former Taoiseach was on party business.
The payment was entered in company records on October 4th with the legend "Dept An Taoiseach".
Mr Barnicle said this was an administrative "error" as it should have referred to the Fianna Fail party instead. This was because Mr Haughey always flew with the Air Corps when he was in government and could not have engaged the services of Celtic Helicopters.
Mr Barnicle said that if the flying hours had been for Mr Haughey, the payment would have been put in the company records against his name, or his code name of "Gary Heffernan".
Mr Barnicle added that Fianna Fail should have been issued with an invoice for the flying hours.
Mr Healy said Fianna Fail had yet to discover an invoice among its records. Nor was there any record of an invoice in the Department of the Taoiseach.
