An account was opened in the Isle of Man by Mr Ray Burke in 1982 to receive a £50,000 political donation, the tribunal heard yesterday.
The former Fianna Fail politician said the £50,000, lodged by Kalabraki Ltd, was the result of fund-raising carried out on his behalf, mainly by his friend, the builder Mr Joe McGowan.
The tribunal also heard that Mr Burke received £60,000 from Mr McGowan in 1984. The payment was made to a Jersey bank account by the same legal firm which acted for Mr Burke.
Asked why his solicitors should organise the payment, Mr Burke insisted it had nothing to do with him and said it was "pure coincidence and nothing else". The Jersey firm, Bedell and Cristin, acted for thousands of companies, Mr Burke said.
He said he had no knowledge of Kalabraki, the company which made the £50,000 donation. "That was the vehicle they used for transferring the sum in and I have no other knowledge of it."
Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, suggested this was an extremely large sum of money and could have funded over 10 election campaigns. "It wasn't a single [fund-raising] effort as I understand it. It was a series of fund-raisers that had been carried out over the years," Mr Burke replied.
He did not know how many donors had contributed to the sum. "You know as much about it as I do," he told the tribunal.
Mr Hanratty asked if it was wise for a public representative to accept such a large payment in an offshore account. Mr Burke said he saw nothing unwise in the fact that fund-raising was carried out on his behalf.
He had not spent all the money, he said, and would not now spend it because he was no longer a public representative. Between 1982 and 1987, Mr Burke lodged about £275,000 in political donations and earned about £115,000 in deposit interest.
About £118,000 remained in that account and a decision had not been made on what would happen to it, he said.
He believed he passed more political donations on to Fianna Fail headquarters than many other politicians. When it came to financial support at election time, national organisations were "normally pretty miserable", he said. The idea that they were like "fairy godmothers" was a myth. "It doesn't work like that."
Two lodgements worth about £30,000 from Rennicks and two lodgements totalling £30,000 from JMSE were also detailed yesterday.
Fianna Fail sought a donation from the Fitzwilton group in 1989 and was told that Rennicks had already supported Mr Burke. Asked about this, Mr Burke said he gave £10,000 to Fianna Fail "and told them to be happy with themselves".