Sir, - I trust the Moriarty Tribunal will ask the AIB whether or not the amount of Mr Haughey's debt reduction by the bank was written off in its profit and loss account. From the evidence presented of securities held, AIB would not have acted correctly in so doing and the State would have been denied possibly 50 per cent of such amount in Corporation Tax (the bank's shareholders suffering only the other 50 per cent).
The Revenue Commissioners might also be asked to explain their approach to the bad debt provisions in the AIB accounts at the time. The fact that these monies might have been written off for mere "commercial" reasons would not meet the normal requirement that to qualify for bad debt treatment the debtor, after vigorous pursuit, should be seen to have insufficient assets to meet the debt - which clearly does not appear to have been the position in relation to Mr Haughey. - Yours, etc., R. J. Cloughley,
Rathdown Park, Terenure, Dublin 6W.