The tribunal may seek to adopt a broader definition of its terms of reference which would lead to politicians who have not held ministerial office coming within its ambit, the Moriarty tribunal was told yesterday.
Outlining his statement to mark the start of the latest public sitting, Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said it would deal with a number of new matters referring to the holders of public office including, mainly, Mr Michael Lowry.
He said to date the tribunal had assumed "holder of public office" meant the holder of a ministerial office. However, it might be necessary to promulgate a revised interpretation of the terms of reference.
Mr Coughlan said it would be unfair and unnecessary to allude to these matters at this point as there would be a substantial gap before potential witnesses could have an opportunity to respond to statements made.
Mr Coughlan said the tribunal would deal with the question of such office-holders after it returned from its adjournment for the local and European elections. In the meantime, it would deal with matters carried over from previous sittings and some new matters relating to Mr Charles Haughey.
In a third stage of this sitting, Mr Coughlan said, the tribunal would return to matters pertaining mainly but not solely to Mr Haughey. This stage would include scrutinising Guinness & Mahon accounts, such as the Amiens accounts, through which money was channelled to Mr Haughey.
In relation to the foregoing of more than £350,000 of interest by AIB in settlement of Mr Haughey's £1.14 million debt in January 1980, Mr Coughlan said further evidence would be given by a number of bank officials.
An analysis of other bank accounts at the time showed that, as a general rule, the advancing of large sums of money, in the case of non-corporate borrowers, was confined mainly to the agricultural sector.
"There seems to have been no case in which the bank permitted borrowings of the order of Mr Haughey's borrowings unconnected with any investment such as the purchase of new land or the requirements of the agricultural sector for working capital."
Ms Sandra Kells, financial director of the Guinness & Mahon bank, told the tribunal it could not locate files relating to the Amiens accounts through which money was channelled to Mr Haughey. Despite "a complete reproduction of our microfiche records", she said, the bank was unable to find any statements for the period December 1979 to February 1980 for the accounts operated by the late Mr Des Traynor.
However, it did locate statements on paper showing the existence of an Amiens account prior to December 1979.
Ms Kells gave details of an Amiens account opened by Mr Tray nor on December 11th, 1979, the day Mr Haughey became leader of Fianna Fail. A number of lodgements were made within three months: £150,000 on December 11th, 1979, £335,000 on January 16th, 1980, £50,000 on January 18th, £150,000 on January 24th, and £8,862.55 on February 14th.
The source of these lodgements could have been identified if paper statements relating to the account had been transferred on to microfiche. The bank official responsible for this operation was Mr Padraig Collery, the financier who administered the Ansbacher accounts with Mr Traynor.
Only one document relating to the payments could be found, a Guinness & Mahon statement with the Central Bank showing a debit of £150,000 on January 24th, 1980, from "Rotunda branch" for crediting to Amiens Securities Ltd.
Ms Kells said there was a "reasonable probability" this corresponded with the credit of an equal amount to the Amiens account on the same date.
Mr Gary Grehan, manager of the Bank of Ireland Rotunda branch, said he was not aware of any other major bank having a branch in the area. The bank held no records of account statements from the period in question as all microfiche records were normally destroyed after six years.
