Former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey denied he became "quite vicious" at a meeting with senior AIB officials in 1976 when asked to hand over his chequebooks. At the time he was in debt to the bank for £310,000.
An internal bank memo of the meeting in October that year said Mr Haughey also warned them that he could be a "very troublesome adversary" if the bank took any drastic action. He told the three senior executives at the meeting "no banker would talk to him in this manner". Mr Haughey stressed the "importance of his position and prestige".
Two weeks earlier he had lunch with the chairman of AIB, which Mr Haughey described as "pleasant" and said there was no suggestion then that he was a "troublesome customer". He proposed to the chairman that they roll up his debt for seven years, after which he would clear it by the sale of Abbeville for £2.5 million. The chairman "politely refused".
Mr Haughey said that while he might have been a troublesome customer from time to time, "in spite of all that has happened" he would not have considered himself and the bank as adversaries.
He rejected the description in the memo of him becoming "quite vicious", and said "it is certainly not banking language for a bank official to use".
At the meeting Mr J. J. Denvir, the then area general manager, adopted a "very hard line", outlined the increase of £118,000 in Mr Haughey's debt in the previous year, and demanded that the chequebooks be handed over.
The memo states Mr Haughey then became "quite vicious" and said he would "not give up his chequebooks as he had to live". The bank was "dealing with an adult and no banker would talk to him, Mr Haughey, in this manner". He also said that if the bank took any drastic action he could be a troublesome adversary.
The meeting "settled down" after the row and the emerging proposals included an advance of £10,000 by the bank to Mr Haughey for each of the following two years, pending the sale within that time of 150 acres of land at his home in Abbeville, Kinsealy, Co Dublin. He then had a Dail salary of £10,000 and £6,000 in other income.
Asked if he remembered the meeting, Mr Haughey said "there was something of a row at the beginning" and he summed it up: "Mr Denvir began by being aggressive and I responded aggressively."
Asked about the "drastic action", the former Taoiseach, said it might have meant "instituting legal proceedings or just dishonouring cheques".
In the previous year he had drawings on the bank of £118,000. At the meeting proposals included freezing a £10,000 advance for each of two years, and freezing the debt at £310,000. Mr Haughey undertook to pay interest, of £50,000 a year, half-yearly starting in March 1997. The memo stated that "we gather he can make an arrangement with a colleague to provide this sum".
He had given instructions to an estate agent to sell his stud farm, Rath Stud, for £300,000 and within two years he would sell 150 acres at Abbeville and retain 100 acres for a residence and new stud farm.
At the meeting with the bank officials, he stressed the importance of his position and prestige, and said that on no account would he consider the outright sale of Abbeville as it was in his constituency.
He rejected a comment by counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, that the lunch with the AIB chairman was a working lunch. "It was a `person-to-person' meeting. Maybe he thought that his influence would persuade me to be a better-behaved customer."
