Mr Ray Burke lodged about £107,000 of political donations in a building society account during the 1989 general election campaign, the planning tribunal was told.
Mr Burke said he made lodgements of £39,500 on May 31st, £13,100 on June 6th and £23,000 on June 9th. On June 19th he also lodged £31,500, mainly made up from a donation given to him by Mr James Gogarty on behalf of his employers, JMSE.
The lodgement of £23,000, Mr Burke explained in evidence on Wednesday, was part of a £30,000 donation from Rennicks.
Mr Burke said he remitted £10,000 of this to Fianna Fail head office staff at a function in the Westbury Hotel on June 8th. The donors behind the other sums were not disclosed.
Answering questions from counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Gallagher SC, Mr Burke said at the end of June he had a personal overdraft of approximately £12,600 with Ulster Bank. Mr Burke pointed out that some of the £30,000 donated by Mr Gogarty still remained in a "political fund". When asked by tribunal chairman Mr Justice Flood whether he could indicate where the fund was, Mr Burke replied that he had already told the tribunal but would put the details in writing.
Referring to attempts by the Taoiseach to investigate claims about donations made in several newspapers, Mr Burke said Mr Ahern told him the night before he was appointed that Mr Dermot Ahern had travelled to London to hold discussions with Mr Joseph Murphy jnr.
Mr Gallagher referred to a telephone call made some time later by Mr Burke to Mr Dermot Ahern who had recently returned from London. In the conversation Mr Burke told Mr Ahern there were two people in his house on June 8th or 9th when Mr Gogarty handed over £30,000.
Mr Burke also said to Mr Ahern that if the Murphy group denied they gave him the £30,000, "who gave me the money then?"
Mr Gallagher asked Mr Burke why he did not tell Mr Ahern that the Murphys were not telling the truth during the meeting in London, when they said they had not given him the money. He also asked him to explain the remark "who gave me the money then?".
Mr Burke said: "This thing was reaching a high farce between the various reports that were taking place and it was obvious that I had got the £30,000. I had admitted getting the £30,000 and I merely said to Dermot in a throwaway remark, `well somebody gave me the money'."
Mr Gallagher referred to an article in the Sunday Tribune on July 20th, written by the editor, Matt Cooper, which said Mr Burke received £30,000 from Bovale Developments. The article said this claim had been "confirmed" by the Government press secretary, Mr Joe Lennon.
Mr Burke said Mr Cooper could not have received a confirmation from the press secretary because it was incorrect to state he had received £30,000 from Bovale Developments - he had received it from JMSE.
"At no time did he [Mr Cooper] get the confirmation, but he proceeded in a most disingenuous way to write the article," said Mr Burke. Mr Burke said he did not contact Mr Cooper or Mr Lennon after the story appeared.
Mr Gallagher asked Mr Burke why he did not seek to "set the record straight" and point out that he had not received the money from Bovale Developments, but from JMSE.
He stated the Taoiseach had indirectly dealt with the contents of the story on RTE that Sunday morning.
"If I was rushing to respond to every statement that was made about me during the 30 years I think we would have a situation where Brazilian rain forests would be in probably greater danger than they are," said Mr Burke.
Mr Gallagher said the article seemed to suggest a link between the alleged Bovale payment and three material contraventions of the development plan in the Swords area.
Mr Gallagher said: "Did you not think in such circumstances, given you were living in Swords, that it was incumbent upon you to emphatically deny you had received any payment from Bovale Developments?"
Mr Burke said as was pointed out in the article he was not a councillor during the period when those decisions were taken.
