Lawyers for the Flood tribunal have told builder Mr Tom Brennan "it stretched credulity to the absolute limit" to suggest that a £50,000 payment from him to former minister Mr Ray Burke was a political donation.
The tribunal's legal team put it to Mr Brennan that it was quite clear the payment was a "present" to Mr Burke, which had been dressed up "in the cloak of a political donation to give it a veneer of respectability".
Mr Pat Hanratty SC said the tribunal was being "profoundly misled" by builders Brennan and McGowan. Mr Brennan has denied this.
Mr Brennan said yesterday the payment was a political donation from him to the Fianna Fail party. He said it was "an arm's-length political donation" for which he asked no favours.
The payment, made in December 1982, was transferred from the account of Kalabraki Ltd, an offshore company owned by Mr Brennan, to an offshore account of Mr Burke in the Isle of Man which was in the name of P.D. Burke.
However, Mr Hanratty, for the tribunal, asked Mr Brennan if he agreed that a sizeable payment by a builder to a politician, from the builder's offshore account to the politician's offshore account, was not "a bit suspicious". He said it "might be suggested that it was a bribe".
Mr Brennan replied: "A political donation is a political donation." He said Fianna Fail was in debt at the time, and he asked: "How did Fianna Fail pay their debt? - not from a church-gate collection."
Asked what Mr Burke said after he was given the payment, Mr Brennan replied: "He said it was greatly appreciated." Mr Brennan said as far as he was concerned it was a donation to the Fianna Fail party, paid directly to Mr Burke.
As to what subsequently happened to the payment, Mr Brennan said it had nothing to do with him. Once he handed it over, it was up to Mr Burke to decide what to do with the money.
Mr Hanratty asked Mr Brennan what he expected in return for the payment. Mr Brennan said he did not expect anything and he did not donate the money to receive favours.
Mr Brennan said his business was doing well at that time, but he could have rung Mr Burke if he got into difficulties. If Mr Burke could not do anything, it would have been all right.
Previously, the tribunal heard that Mr Burke made representations to the Revenue Commissioners on behalf of builders Brennan and McGowan when he was minis ter for industry and commerce in 1989.
But Mr Brennan previously told the tribunal the minister said he could do nothing for the builders in their dispute over a multi-million-pound tax claim faced by one of their companies.
Mr Hanratty put it to Mr Brennan yesterday that the payment created a relationship with Mr Burke which was different to that of ordinary fundraisers - people who sold tickets, for example. He said there might be something "unpolitical" about the payment.
Mr Brennan said he had a relationship with Mr Burke and his family which stretched back to the 1960s.
Asked why he made the payment by transferring between offshore accounts rather than by writing a cheque to the Fianna Fail party, for example, Mr Brennan said he "just chose to do it like that".
Mr Hanratty put it to Mr Brennan that the lump-sum payment of £50,000 was "in a totally different league" to the usual political donation. It was enough to run an entire election campaign in 1982.
Mr Hanratty asked Mr Brennan if he made a £35,000 payment to Mr Burke in April 1984.
Mr Brennan said he did not.