Former Revenue chief tells of Dunne meeting

Yet another lapse of memory at the Moriarty Tribunal. There is definately something in the air at Dublin Castle that prompts people to forget important information.

The former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Philip Curran, said he had forgotten by the time of the McCracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal that his predecessor had met Ben Dunne.

However he did not tell the tribunal that his predecessor, Sa©amus Pairca©ir, had also met Mr Dunne.

Mr Curran said he must have seen a Revenue briefing note of March 1988 stating that Mr Dunne had a number of meetings with his predecessor.

“It would not have surprised me because chairmen sometimes meet people.”

By 1997, at the time of the tribunal, the issue did not occur to him, and if it had he would have thought other people had dealt with the matter. He said that when the tribunal had contacted him in 1997, by way of the Revenue, he “felt it was best” to mention his meeting with Mr Dunne. “It didn’t occur to me that I should talk about meetings others had.”

Mr Curran was a commissioner with the Revenue from 1983 and was appointed chairman in 1987. He retired in 1990. He said he was requested to go to Mr Haughey’s office in March 1988 and did so. Mr Haughey told him Mr Dunne wanted a meeting to discuss his tax affairs.