Mr Ben Dunne was approached for money for Mr Charles Haughey just as Mr Haughey was elected Taoiseach, after more than four years in opposition, evidence to the Moriarty tribunal has indicated.
Mr Dunne and the Dunnes Stores trustee, Mr Noel Fox, said yesterday they now believed they gave an inaccurate version of events to the McCracken tribunal, which in 1997 investigated payments to Mr Haughey by Mr Dunne. They agreed that an approach from Mr Haughey's personal financial adviser, Mr Des Traynor, seeking funds for Mr Haughey probably came in early 1987, and not in November of that year, as the McCracken tribunal had determined.
Mr Haughey became Taoiseach in March 1987 following a general election in February.
The Moriarty tribunal has said it is going to examine the motive for a £282,500 sterling payment in May 1987 to Mr Haughey, which Mr Ben Dunne yesterday accepted he authorised. Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, said the timing of the May 1987 payment was something the tribunal would return to. At present the tribunal was dealing with the "who and when" of payments. "We will, in due course, be considering the question of why."
Mr Dunne and Mr Fox, a partner with accountants Oliver Freaney & Co and a trustee with the Dunnes Stores Settlement Trust, said they now believe that the first payment made to Mr Haughey was a cheque to a company called Tripleplan in May 1987. The McCracken tribunal was told that the first payment was a £182,630 sterling cheque made out to the late Mr John Furze in December 1987.
It is now known that £1.8 million approximately was given to Mr Haughey by Mr Dunne, and not £1.3 million as found by the McCracken tribunal.
Mr Dunne said yesterday that although he had no memory of authorising the making of the May 1987 payment, he accepted that he did so, given the evidence which was heard last week. He said he had never heard of the Tripleplan cheque prior to last year, when told about it by the Moriarty tribunal lawyers.
Mr Fox said he had known the reason for the payment at the time it was made, but had forgotten about it some time in the early 1990s. He said that in 1993 and 1994 he had been very taken up with the dispute then under way within the Dunne family. He had forgotten about the Tripleplan payment but not about the cheque made out to Mr Furze.
Mr Fox agreed that the matter of the Tripleplan and Furze cheques had been raised with him by auditors from his own company, Oliver Freaney & Co, in the late 1980s, but he had not told them what he knew. He had believed he had a duty to Mr Dunne to keep the payments to Mr Haughey confidential unless otherwise authorised by Mr Dunne. Mr Fox pointed out he is not an audit partner.
The two payments were treated as "suspense items" in the books of Dunnes Stores Ireland Company and were matters which were holding up the signing off of the accounts. Mr Fox said he was aware that there was no commercial reason for the company making the payments but disagreed that he had a responsibility as a trustee of the Dunnes trust in relation to the matter. He said he had been confident the monies would be repaid by Mr Dunne.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, put it to Mr Fox that his testimony was "incredible" but Mr Fox said this was "very unfair". He had "wholly forgot" about the Tripleplan cheque until he learned last year that the company's directors were Mr Furze and Mr John Collins. This had "triggered" his memory.
