The Moriarty tribunal report on the late Charles Haughey is due to be published today. The report is expected to be presented to the clerk of the Dáil this morning and soon afterwards to become publicly available through the Government Publications Office.
The report will detail millions of euro in payments received by the former taoiseach from various sources over the period 1979 to 1996.
Where it can it will identify the sources of the secret payments received by Mr Haughey. The tribunal has not been able to identify all of the sources of the funds that passed through bank accounts associated with Mr Haughey during the 17-year period.
As well as identifying payments to Mr Haughey, the tribunal was also charged with investigating whether any identified donor received any favours in return.
It is expected that the tribunal will link actions by Mr Haughey in the 1980s in support of Irish passport applications from a number of Middle Eastern nationals, with a £50,000 payment received from a wealthy Saudi sheikh, Mahmoud Fustok, in 1985. Otherwise it is not expected that the tribunal will identify any significant favours received by any of the identified donors.
The tribunal is expected to find that some of the money donated for the medical treatment of the late Brian Lenihan was spent by Mr Haughey. Mr Haughey initiated the fundraising for his long-time friend, and the funds raised were lodged to the Fianna Fáil party leader's account.
The report may comment on the fact that the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in his capacity as a co-signatory of the Fianna Fáil leader's account during the Haughey period, sometimes signed large numbers of blank cheques on the account.
As well as spending money donated for Mr Lenihan, the report is also expected to find that Mr Haughey spent money lodged to the account and which was intended for Fianna Fáil.
The Moriarty (Payments to Politicians) Tribunal was established in 1997 in the wake of the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) Tribunal, which revealed that Mr Haughey had received huge payments from Ben Dunne.
In his evidence to the tribunal, Mr Haughey insisted he was unable to help the tribunal with identifying donors. He said his finances were handled by the late Des Traynor since the 1960s and for this reason, the details were not known to him. It is expected that the tribunal will not accept this evidence.
If it finds that Mr Haughey was unco-operative, it may later refuse his legal costs to his estate. It could also assign some of the tribunal's legal costs to Mr Haughey's estate.
Today's report will be the first from the tribunal. Next year the tribunal is expected to publish reports on matters connected with former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry, including possible financial connections with businessman Denis O'Brien.
