Former Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald will give evidence to the Moriarty tribunal on his settlement with AIB, the tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said Dr FitzGerald's evidence was sought because Mr Charles Haughey's counsel had asked about AIB's treatment of other politicians in debt.
Dr FitzGerald got into financial difficulty after the public offer for Guinness Peat Aviation shares collapsed in 1992.
He had borrowed £170,000 to buy preference shares in the aircraft leasing company after joining the GPA board. Dr FitzGerald had planned to repay the loan by selling the shares. However, in mid-1992, the flotation collapsed, leaving him heavily in debt.
Dr FitzGerald's only asset was the family home in Palmerston Road, Dublin, which he sold to his son Mark. He and his late wife Joan then moved to the top floor of the house.
This allowed him to clear his mortgage and repay £40,000 or 22.5 per cent of the loan on November 17th, 1993.
The tribunal also heard eight examples of how AIB handled other instances of major debt by an individual. Mr Jerry Healy SC said these cases were being examined to see if AIB had treated Mr Haughey's case differently to others.
Mr Vincent Clifford, AIB's head of risk management, said most of the cases related to farmers who had got into financial difficulty in the 1980s. They had borrowed money to buy land but interest rates soared and land prices collapsed.
Most of the cases involved land or assets being sold to settle the debt. One farmer had sold his land to pay the debt. Another farmer, with an interest in 1,000 acres, had accumulated debts of over £1 million and eventually had £630,000 written off.
Mr Healy asked why Mr Haughey's "substantial securities" were never at threat when his debt of £1.1 million was outstanding.
Mr Clifford said he had not dealt with Mr Haughey's case but he added that a disposal of assets was not necessarily the answer in some situations. He pointed out that Mr Haughey had made a substantial cash payment to clear some of his debt. Mr Haughey eventually paid £750,000 of his debt.
