Tribunal publishes apology to Haughey’s son

The Mahon Tribunal has issued an apology to Conor Haughey, son of former taoiseach Charles Haughey, over a reference to him in its final report.

It issued a correction after it mistakenly named him in connection with false evidence.

It said Conor Haughey’s name was stated in the report instead of his brother, Ciarán Haughey.

Conor Haughey did not give evidence, but Ciarán did.

An advertisement has been placed in newspapers today after the tribunal made changes to its report online due to the error. It follows reports that Mr Haughey was considering legal action and that requests were being considered to recall hard copies and disks containing the report.

The report had stated it rejected the evidence of Mr Haughey over funds received in relation to the sale of the Cargobridge lands in Dublin: “The tribunal was satisfied that this evidence was given with the full knowledge that it was false, and that it was given for the purpose of concealing from the tribunal the fact that Mr Haughey and Mr [John] Barnicle had received between them, directly or indirectly, approximately £164,000.00 in total of those proceeds.

“Their false and misleading information necessitated their recall to give additional evidence to the tribunal in relation to the disbursal of the proceeds of sale.”

Calls to the Haughey family were not returned yesterday.

The correction reads: “On page lvi [sic] of the table of content and on page 2502 Chapter seventeen, of the Tribunal’s final report, Mr Conor Haughey’s name is mistakenly stated instead of Mr Ciarán Haughey.

“Mr Conor Haughey had no involvement with the Tribunal inquiries. The Tribunal has unreservedly apologised to Mr Conor Haughey for this error.”