Mr Larry Goodman yesterday told the tribunal he never made an investment directly or indirectly in Celtic Helicopters and had no meetings or discussions about it.
Mr Goodman took the opportunity to make the denial at the end of evidence confirming he made a donation of £25,000 to the fund for the medical expenses of Mr Brian Lenihan in June 1989.
He said he had been contacted by Mr Peter Hanley, who mentioned a figure of £10,000 to £20,000. He had contacted a small number of people and was keen to make it as confidential as possible.
Mr Goodman said he made out the cheque to the Fianna Fail party leader's fund. He believed it would have been sent by post and drawn on an AIBP account. It was treated as a charitable contribution.
He had received no acknowledgement of the contribution from Mr Lenihan or Fianna Fail.
When he completed his evidence about the contribution his counsel, Mr Ian Finlay SC, asked if he had read the transcript of the evidence last May of Mr Michael Murphy, an insurance broker for Celtic Helicopters, and in particular questions put to him in relation to the company. There had been a suggestion that Mr Goodman might have had some involvement with or role in Celtic Helicopters.
Mr Goodman said: "I am very concerned at what was stated at the tribunal on that day and it led to 28 media articles, all of which were incorrect."
Mr Finlay asked if he had ever made an investment either directly or indirectly in Celtic Helicopters. Mr Goodman replied that he had not and he saw from the transcript that it was put to Mr Murphy that his largest beef customer would have been very upset if Celtic Helicopters was not supported and Mr Murphy agreed with that.
It was put to Mr Murphy that it was a very sensitive time as the beef tribunal was sitting and a particular witness was about to be called and was asked not to mention the name. Mr Murphy had said that was correct and was asked if this was raised with one of his major customers, this investment, and he said it was.
Mr Goodman said: "I want to make it clear to the tribunal that I believe that was misleading. If we were his largest customer at the time, we had no discussion with Mr Murphy, and we had no investment."
Mr Goodman said: "I had no investment with Mr Murphy directly, I had no investment indirectly. I had no discussions."