30 August 2001 Edition
Haughey's slick sales job
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
Yes he is. No he isn't. Yes he is, but not quite yet. Isn't it very telling that ten years after being forced from office and in the wake of three different tribunals that have left his political integrity shattered, we still have Charlie Haughey putting susceptible journalists through the hoops.
Last weekend, the Sunday Independent started the ball rolling with the scoop news that Haughey was selling his Abbeville estate for £30 million. Then he was going to pay his outstanding tax debts, even though it is as yet unclear as to how large they actually are, and retire to France as a tax exile. Haughey would divide his time between a new residence in France and Ireland, having the right to stay in Abbeville until his death.
If that wasn't incredible enough, Haughey, who only a few short months ago was so ill with a terminal disease that he could not be publicly grilled by the Moriarty Tribunal, had, we were reliably informed, conducted the entire negotiations himself.
As the story was sluicing through papers and news bulletins, who should pop up in the news but the bould Charlie, on his annual jaunt of starting the Dingle Regatta. Now we had a nice PR glimpse of the disgraced Taoiseach, but perhaps not so disgraced, as the media coverage of the possible Abbeville sale has been generally positive.
It has been clear from all of Haughey's public dealings with tribunals over the past few years that he couldn't care less what the public or anybody, for that matter, think of him. What does he care about then? Well the one obvious clue from his life of spending is money. What Haughey fears most is not having any, and the sale of Abbeville would, even with tax payments, leave him quite comfortable by any definition.
The idea has now been publicly floated, so when the actual sale is concluded, and which many media sources tell us is bound by a confidentiality clause, we will be well used to the notion that Haughey is once again getting away with it.
Surely now is the time for the Dublin government to empower the Moriarty Tribunal to make Haughey surrender his passport and freeze all of his assets until we know just how much money he received and how much of the tax code and other laws were broken over his years in political office.
Perhaps the first question would be where did he get the money to buy Abbeville in the first place?
Yes he is. No he isn't. Yes he is, but not quite yet. Isn't it very telling that ten years after being forced from office and in the wake of three different tribunals that have left his political integrity shattered, we still have Charlie Haughey putting susceptible journalists through the hoops.
Last weekend, the Sunday Independent started the ball rolling with the scoop news that Haughey was selling his Abbeville estate for £30 million. Then he was going to pay his outstanding tax debts, even though it is as yet unclear as to how large they actually are, and retire to France as a tax exile. Haughey would divide his time between a new residence in France and Ireland, having the right to stay in Abbeville until his death.
If that wasn't incredible enough, Haughey, who only a few short months ago was so ill with a terminal disease that he could not be publicly grilled by the Moriarty Tribunal, had, we were reliably informed, conducted the entire negotiations himself.
As the story was sluicing through papers and news bulletins, who should pop up in the news but the bould Charlie, on his annual jaunt of starting the Dingle Regatta. Now we had a nice PR glimpse of the disgraced Taoiseach, but perhaps not so disgraced, as the media coverage of the possible Abbeville sale has been generally positive.
It has been clear from all of Haughey's public dealings with tribunals over the past few years that he couldn't care less what the public or anybody, for that matter, think of him. What does he care about then? Well the one obvious clue from his life of spending is money. What Haughey fears most is not having any, and the sale of Abbeville would, even with tax payments, leave him quite comfortable by any definition.
The idea has now been publicly floated, so when the actual sale is concluded, and which many media sources tell us is bound by a confidentiality clause, we will be well used to the notion that Haughey is once again getting away with it.
Surely now is the time for the Dublin government to empower the Moriarty Tribunal to make Haughey surrender his passport and freeze all of his assets until we know just how much money he received and how much of the tax code and other laws were broken over his years in political office.
Perhaps the first question would be where did he get the money to buy Abbeville in the first place?