Mr Des Traynor did not tell Mr Haughey the names of two possible investors in a development scheme to clear his AIB debt, the former Taoiseach said.
Details were given of a meeting between Mr Michael Phelan, Mr Haughey's bank manager, and Mr Traynor, his financial adviser, when he said he had at least two other possible investors in a development scheme with the Gallagher Group.
Mr Haughey agreed with Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that Mr Traynor did discuss the principle of the scheme, "that some new body would be set up and some land would be sold". Mr Haughey had rejected the outright sale of the land because of the publicity.
At the time, his debt to the bank stood at £913,279. Notes of a meeting with his bank manager in September expressed the bank's concern that with interest the debt would be more than £1 million and "people high up in the bank were showing signs of grave concern . . ."
The scheme involved Mr Patrick Gallagher putting in cash so that the company could buy land at Abbeville. Mr Haughey would own part of the equity and he would not mind "even if shares were in the name of his children so that he would not lose all of the capital appreciation on the property".
Mr Haughey denied he would have had discussions with Mr Traynor about the investors. Asked if Mr Traynor would have kept that from him, he said "he may have mentioned that he had other potential investors in the company but I certainly have no recollection of him mentioning anybody specifically".
He said Mr Traynor operated very much on a "need to know" basis and "he may not have felt at liberty to tell me".
Mr Coughlan: "Would curiosity alone not have whetted your interest?"
Mr Haughey said it was not a question of curiosity to know the names. "Presumably these other people would be clients of Mr Traynor's as I was and he would have strict client obligations to those people and that would certainly govern whether he would disclose their names to me or not."
Mr Coughlan referred to a document which gave details of Mr Traynor's meeting with the bank manager, in September 1979, to discuss the debt and the scheme.
Mr Traynor said "he had at least two other people in mind" but was concerned about the tax implications for them.
Mr Coughlan said they had gone over all the documents and this appeared to be the first record since 1975 of Mr Traynor's involvement with AIB.
Mr Haughey found it hard to accept it was a full record. He would "almost certainly be sure that Mr Traynor had been in touch from time to time, perhaps on an informal basis".
