Mr Charles Haughey benefited from more than £300,000 in capital borrowed and interest paid by the late Mr P.V. Doyle, the tribunal heard yesterday.
The hotelier took out two loans for Mr Haughey's benefit, the first for £120,000 in April 1983, the second for £50,000 two years later.
Mr Jerry Healy SC, counsel for the tribunal, said that in both cases the funds seemed to have been channelled into Haughey accounts while the combined debt, with corresponding interest, was cleared by Mr Doyle or his estate.
Mr Healy said the tribunal had been told by Mr George Carville, a former deputy managing director of the Doyle Group, that he could recall Mr Doyle saying he had guaranteed a loan for Mr Haughey with Guinness & Mahon bank.
Mr Carville could recall Mr Doyle advising him "he need not worry about this loan as Mr Haughey had agreed to pay the interest and refund the capital". That did not happen, however, and the loan remained outstanding when Mr Doyle died.
Mr Carville had said he was asked to discuss the matter with the late Mr Des Traynor, Mr Haughey's financial adviser. They met at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin in March 1988 along with other hotel executives, including Mr David Doyle.
At the meeting, Mr Traynor said that approximately £150,000 was due on Mr Doyle's account which, he said, had been opened "to facilitate Mr Haughey who was apparently financially embarrassed at the time". Mr Traynor went on to explain that while some payments had been made, these had stopped, and "there was no hope of the loan being repaid".
Mr Healy said the Doyle executives judged that there would be no chance of recovering the money and recommended to Mrs Margaret Doyle, Mr Doyle's widow, that the account be closed. This was done with the payment of £150,230 on March 23rd, 1988.
The tribunal identified four interest payments on the loan account: £52,495.86 on April 30th, 1985; £9,966.74 on June 9th, 1987; £45,000 on July 31st, 1987; and £5,000 on August 24th, 1987. The second of these payments corresponded with a cheque, made out to Mr Traynor, drawn on the Pembroke branch of a Bank of Ireland account belonging to Mr Doyle.
Mr Healy said the tribunal would inquire into whether Mr Doyle was the source of all the interest repayments. On the basis of the documentation available, it seemed Mr Haughey certainly benefited from them all.
Mr Doyle's second loan was for £50,000, £40,000 of which was drawn down by a Guinness & Mahon account used to channel funds into a personal bill-paying account for Mr Haughey.
The balance on the loan account was cleared on the same date as was Mr Doyle's other account with a payment of £62,363.92.
