Dunne’s £23m ‘mental blackout’ over tax write-off

THE meeting with Revenue saved Ben Dunne’s family £23 million - but he says he can’t remember it.

Charles Haughey arranged for Dunne to meet the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Seamus Paircéir shortly before Dunne gave the then Taoiseach a gift of stg£282,500 - but Mr Dunne says he has no explanation why Haughey intervened. In all, Mr Dunne had three meetings with Mr Paircéir in 1987. At the end of these his family was £23m (€29.2m) richer in reduced tax bills - but he said he had no recollection of any of these meetings. Even Mr Dunne admitted this was “incredible”.

The tribunal was set up to investigate whether Mr Haughey gave political favours in return for cash. It has uncovered payments totalling £1.9m (€2.4m) from Mr Dunne to the former Fianna Fáil leader between 1987 and 1993.