Bertie Ahern issued a Fianna Fáil cheque to his associate Des Richardson on the same day Mr Richardson wrote out a cheque for Mr Ahern as part of the Christmas 1993 "dig-out", the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday. Colm Keenaand Fiona Gartlandreport.
The Fianna Fáil cheque was lodged to the account of a company controlled by Mr Richardson called Willdover Ltd, and Mr Richardson wrote out a cheque on the company's account and gave it to Mr Ahern.
The Fianna Fáil cheque was for £18,744 and the Willdover cheque, given to Mr Ahern, was for £2,500. Up to the date of the transactions, the Willdover account had been overdrawn.
When tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC said Mr Richardson's payment to Mr Ahern was funded by money from a Fianna Fáil cheque signed by Mr Ahern, Mr Richardson objected.
He said the occurrence of the two payments on the same day was "coincidence".
The money in the Willdover account was his money, he said. "If I want to give £2,500 to friend or foe, I'll do that . . . I'm entitled to do that," he said. The suggestion being made was "some way off the mark and it's untrue."
The tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, said he understood Mr Richardson was saying there was no connection between the two payments but it was a matter the tribunal was inquiring into.
In December 1993 Mr Richardson was chief fundraiser for the Fianna Fáil party and used Willdover Ltd to invoice the party for his services.
Mr Ahern was party treasurer and had asked Mr Richardson to take up the fundraising position.
The tribunal heard that Willdover's books record the payment to Mr Ahern as being made in relation to Mr Ahern's annual constituency fundraising dinner in Kilmainham.
Mr Richardson said the payment had not been made for this purpose and the explanation for the inaccuracy was the desire for "confidentiality". "It's not a hanging offence," he said.
The tribunal was questioning Mr Richardson about £22,500 paid to Mr Ahern in December 1993 and which the tribunal has been told was money donated by a number of friends. The sum comprised £15,000 in cash, a draft for £5,000, and a Willdover cheque for £2,500 signed by Mr Richardson.
The cash came from six named donors. Mr O'Neill said the tribunal had not found any contemporaneous written document linked to the cash payments, or evidence of any bank withdrawal made to facilitate the cash payments.
The tribunal has been told Mr Ahern accepted the money on the basis it was a loan. Mr O'Neill said two of the cash donors, Fintan Gunne and Paddy Reilly, have since died but no effort was made at the time of their deaths to repay the money to their estates.