A leading Irish Manchester-based businessman has supported Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's version of an £8,000 sterling payment that he was given by a group of Irish businessmen in the city in 1994.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern has confirmed that he attended a number of Manchester United matches in 1993 and 1994 as the guest of other developers then lobbying to build a controversial casino and conference centre in the Phoenix Park.
Speaking yesterday, John Kennedy, a multi-millionaire property developer who emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s, said Mr Ahern attended a dinner in the city sometime during 1993 or 1994.
The only significant difference in the two men's accounts is that Mr Kennedy, who lives in the wealthy Hale suburb, says that Mr Ahern did not speak at the dinner, while Mr Ahern said that he did.
Mr Kennedy said: "This particular dinner, a private dinner, happened where, I think, he was over for a football match at United. There were no speeches at this particular one.
"There were 25, or 27 Irishmen there and somebody came up with the idea of making a collection, something to give to Bertie, as Bertie had very often in the past spoke at dinners for us where we wanted someone to speak at dinners for us.
"And he was always happy to do that because he liked to talk about the progress that was made in the Irish economy. And he liked to talk about things in the North of Ireland, which we all wanted to talk about." He went on: "This was just a private dinner, over for a match at United. He was given this money with no conditions. It wasn't a loan, it was just given to him to do what he wanted with it." The dinner in the Four Seasons Hotel, which has now been renamed the Marriott, was organised by the late Tim Kilroe - the owner at the time of Aer Arann.
Mr Kennedy said he did not organise the collection: "I wasn't the instigator of the idea. Somebody came up with that, and we all went along with that. Possibly some people might have known about his personal problems at the time.
"I don't believe that I did at the time. I don't think that I was au fait with that at that time. Maybe I was, I just can't remember. That's what happened," said Mr Kennedy. "No, it wasn't a political donation. It was for himself personally."
The only other person who says they attended the dinner, which took place in September 1994 during the weekend of a United/Liverpool match, is Senator Tony Kett, a close friend of the Taoiseach.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Taoiseach has confirmed that he attended a number of United matches in 1993 and 1994 as the guest of a millionaire businessman lobbying to build a controversial casino and conference centre in the Phoenix Park.
Norman Turner, a Cheshire-based businessman, and Robert White, a school friend and long-time associate of Mr Ahern, hosted him. The two men were then behind a company called the Sonas Centre, which was bidding to build, in association with the US Ogden firm, on the disused Phoenix Park racecourse. In the face of fierce local opposition, the developers proposed a £200 million development, including a casino, a 65,000-seater stadium and a 2,500-seat conference centre.
In 1997, Mr Ahern, who was by then Taoiseach, issued a statement in which he strongly opposed the casino. It said then: "Let me make one thing very plain. We will not have the conference centre connected with a casino, good, bad or indifferent. There will be no casino, as proposed for the Phoenix Park Racecourse site." The fact that Mr Ahern attended "a couple of matches" as a guest of Mr Turner had to be compared with his "strong opposition" to his plans, Mr Ahern's spokeswoman said last night.
PJ Mara, who was a close adviser to Mr Ahern, was public-relations consultant for Sonas, while Des Richardson, a long-time associate of the Taoiseach, was also linked to Sonas.
