The magnate, the minister and the £395k extension
November 28, 1996, began like any other day in the job with the Irish Independent's afternoon news conference in the editor, Vinnie Doyle's, office -- but it soon became apparent that this day would be far from routine. Our reporter, Sam Smyth, had unearthed information that showed tycoon Ben Dunne had given Transport, Energy and Communications Minister Michael Lowry hundreds of thousands of pounds to restore his luxury Georgian home in Tipperary.
To look at the true genesis of this story, one must go back to 1992 and a $1,200-a-night duplex suite at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress hotel in Orlando, Florida. Mr Dunne had flown to the US state with a group of golfing friends and hold-alls full of cash.
On arriving at the hotel, the then supermarket millionaire went on a massive cocaine binge before ordering a prostitute to come to his suite on the 17th floor. Denise Wojcik arrived at about 1.30am, where she was greeted by her host with a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and a $400 tip, whereupon the two of them started to snort lines of cocaine.
At about 6am, Mr Dunne began to lose the plot, fumbling around in his room for cash to pay the girl. Throwing open his door, he ran, half-naked, on to the balcony overlooking the hotel's atrium. He was now 17 storeys above the lobby of the grandest hotel in Orlando, screaming for help.
Denise called security, who called the police. Mr Dunne was arrested and charged with a series of serious drug offences, including trafficking, which carried a mandatory jail sentence. However, the serious charges were dropped and he faced a lesser charge of possessing a small amount of cocaine. By 1993, his siblings in Dunnes ousted him from the business.
This change of management was to prove pivotal to exposures of secret payments to Mr Lowry and to former Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Roll forward to 1996 and the Lowry expose in the Irish Independent.
For years, Irish political life had been awash with rumours of politicians on the take, but nothing was ever proven. Now here, for the first time, was concrete evidence of a senior minister taking money from a wealthy businessman to do up his home. Three months after Mr Smyth's story was published, the Bruton government set up the McCracken Tribunal, with Mr Justice Brian McCracken appointed as the sole member. Its remit was to investigate allegations of secret payments by Mr Dunne to Mr Lowry and Mr Haughey.
The tribunal produced a 100-page report in August 1997. Among other matters, it found that Mr Lowry was knowingly assisted by Mr Dunne in evading tax. It found Mr Haughey also received £1.1m from Mr Dunne, and that Dunnes paid £165,000 towards setting up Mr Lowry's company, Streamline Enterprises, as well as Mr Dunne footing the £395,000 bill for refurbishing his home.
As a result of the findings and revelation of substantial funds in secret offshore Ansbacher accounts owned by Mr Haughey, Bertie Ahern established the Moriarty Tribunal. Moriarty found "that Mr Dunne was at all times fully aware of all of the payments which he made to Mr Haughey". It accused him of being "selective in the information he provided to the Tribunal".
The tribunal also found he had given Mr Haughey around £1.3m, to which the former Taoiseach was to famously respond: "Thanks, big fella". Mr Ahern, along with many others, would also get caught up in the wave of revelations.
gerry mccarthy is night editor of the 'irish independent'
