Elan crisis harks back to student days

Tom Lynch, vice-chairman of troubled Irish pharmaceuticals group Elan, has fiercely denied that his conduct was improper when he was president of his student union two decades ago.

At Elan, where the group value has collapsed in recent months, Mr Lynch is dealing with shareholder litigation and an inquiry by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into accounting practices.

But between 1978 and 1980 he was president of the student union at Queen's University in Belfast, an elected post. The Belfast Telegraph reported at the beginning of February 1980 that Queen's student union had asked the university's auditors to investigate problems in the union's entertainment accounts.

Mr Lynch was quoted as saying: "We don't believe there are serious irregularities but we want to give the accounts a clean bill of health." The report stated that the amount involved was less than £100.

He was also criticised by the Democratic Unionist Association at the time; the DUA alleged that payments made to student union societies, including the Gaelic football club and the Gay Liberation Society, did not correspond to the student union rules, according to the newspaper.

A month later he resigned from the post following criticism from the student body.

But Mr Lynch last week denied that there was an investigation into the student union's finances. "I have spoken to the relevant university official, and there was no investigation by internal or external auditors or university authorities," he said.

He could not recall the reason for his resignation. "There was no suggestion I was involved in any financial impropriety. I reject and repudiate any references to events at Queen's at the time ... it has no relevance or linkage to any events subsequently."