The Fianna Fail TD Mr Denis Foley has had an account in the Ansbacher deposits since 1979, the Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Foley, in a statement provided to the tribunal, said he invested £50,000 with Mr Des Traynor in 1979, but was unaware until last May of any connection between the investment and the Ansbacher accounts.
He said he made three withdrawals on his investment - £20,000 in 1989, £10,000 in 1993 and, in September 1995, £50,000 in cash.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said Mr Foley has informed the tribunal that since September 1995 he has kept two bank drafts into which the £50,000 was converted "with a view to paying the Revenue Commissioners and that he has indicated that these funds have been applied by him towards discharging outstanding tax liability."
In his statement, Mr Foley, a TD since 1981 and vice-chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, said his association with Mr Traynor stretched back to the mid-1960s and a link with the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Co Kerry. At the time, Mr Foley was a rate collector and also involved in arranging for bands to play at the hotel and promoting events at the hotel's ballroom.
He said he was approached around 1975-1976 by Mr Traynor who asked whether he wished to invest funds for which he could get "a good return". Around 1979, Mr Foley decided to invest £50,000 which he gave directly to Mr Traynor. In return, he received two lodgment dockets, one for £30,000, the other for £20,000.
Mr Traynor told him the money was being invested in an entity called "Click Investments" and he would be furnished with statements on a periodic basis. But the first statements he received were not until 1982. While these mentioned Mr Foley's name and amounts they did not mention any account number and Guinness & Mahon had no record of any account held by him, said Mr Coughlan.
One of two other "inclinations" of the state of his investment was a slip of paper given to Mr Foley by Mr Traynor with the figure £72,893 sterling written on it. Mr Foley later received verbal confirmation from a Guinness & Mahon official, Mr Martin Keane, that his balance had risen to £72,893 sterling.
Mr Foley said his contacts with Mr Traynor following his election to theDail in 1981 were "very rare". He telephoned the banker a number of times and called to his offices in Fitzwilliam Square on two occasions to discuss how his investment was progressing.
He said that following Mr Traynor's death in 1994 he became concerned about his investment and, in August 1995, made contact with Mr Padraig Collery, formerly of Guinness & Mahon, saying he was anxious to make a withdrawal of £50,000 and that he wanted statements relating to his account.
Mr Collery informed him the investment was being dealt with by Mr John Furze whom Mr Foley said he had never before heard of. In early September 1995 Mr Foley arranged to meet Mr Collery at Jury's Hotel in Dublin where he was given £50,000 in cash.
Mr Foley said the only other contact he had with Mr Collery was to receive statements relating to the account last May. These contained references to Ansbacher and Hamilton Ross. Mr Foley said this was the first time he saw mention of these names.
Mr Coughlan said it appeared the letter heads on the earlier statements which Mr Foley received had been cut off, thus leaving no record of the account number and bank name.
