So what is the largest political donation Ray Burke has ever received? Is it £30,000, £35,000 or - now - £50,000 or even £60,000?
In 1997, when the Fianna Fail minister first came under suspicion over a £30,000 payment from Mr James Gogarty, he told the Dail that this amount was the largest single contribution he had received during an election campaign.
We learned subsequently that these were weasel words, as Mr Burke had in fact received the sum of £30,000 twice, from Mr Gogarty and from Rennicks Manufacturing.
Then it emerged at the tribunal that Mr Burke's statement wasn't just misleading; it was false. We learned about the £35,000 Mr Oliver Barry of Century Radio so generously contributed to the politician in May 1989, four months after Century was awarded a national radio licence.
So Mr Burke apologised for misleading people, and told us that he had actually received £35,000, but had remembered it as just £30,000.
But now we find that he was the lucky recipient of lump sum payments of £50,000 and £60,000 from companies linked to his long-time builder friends Tom Brennan and Joe McGow an. The two builders at first claimed these represented the accumulated results of fundraising in the UK, but now they concede that they were in fact political donations.
Mr Burke might argue that these payments, in 1984 and 1985, were not given at election time. But two years ago, he told the tribunal that no sum he got from Brennan and McGowan was larger than £35,000. Pressed further on the matter, he claimed these were "matters for the Revenue".
It is doubtful that Mr Burke will succeed in trotting out that excuse when he comes to give evidence about the latest revelations at the tribunal. How will the former minister reconcile his previous accounts of Brennan and McGowan's fundraising on his behalf, and his vagueness about visits to the Channel Islands, with yesterday's revelation of his trip to Jersey in 1984?
Mr Burke used a Dublin solicitor to set up the offshore company Caviar Ltd and hid behind layers of concealment. He used a misleading or at least unusual version of his name, P.D. Burke, and gave an address in England when Caviar was registered in April 1984. He appointed nominee directors from the Channel Islands, and instructed that correspondence be sent to his solicitor inside sealed envelopes addressed to "Mr A. Burke".
The only visit to Jersey he could remember in any detail when giving evidence previously was a trip in 1985 when he claimed to have broken exchange control regulations by bringing £15,000 from Ireland to Jersey. It was an implausible explanation, and the tribunal saw through it. Burke was forced to admit to a "failure of recollection" and conceded that the money came from Canio Ltd, a company controlled by Brennan and McGowan and auctioneer Mr John Finnegan.
But now the tribunal is on the trail of another payment by Canio to Mr Burke, this time for £60,000 in November 1984.
Yesterday we learned that Mr Burke travelled to the island less than a week before he got the money. The purpose of the trip was to arrange for the transfer of the money to his company, Caviar, the tribunal heard.
Canio was set up to develop lands in Sandyford, Co Dublin, and part of the mortgage it raised on these lands was used to pay Mr Burke. So why was such a vehicle used to fund Mr Burke? Why the elaborate secrecy on the part of donors and recipient?
The answers to these questions may be related to the ultimate fate of the lands. It seems that Dun Laoghaire Corporation was at one time interested in buying them. Eventually, though, they were sold to another bidder and developed. Today's evidence is expected to shed more light on these matters.
pcullen@irish-times.ie