Mr Ben Dunne had dinner with Mr Charles Haughey at his Abbeville home a month before three Dunnes Stores cheques worth £180,000 were sent to the former Taoiseach's personal financier, Mr Des Traynor, the Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday.
However, Mr Dunne said the question of money was never raised with Mr Haughey then or on any other occasion.
Mr Dunne was giving evidence about the three cheques which were drawn from a Dunnes grocery account and lodged in November 1992 with an account belonging to Carlisle Trust Ltd. Two cheques were subsequently withdrawn, one for £100,000 made payable to Celtic Helicopters, which was jointly owned by Mr Haughey's son, Ciaran, and another for £80,000 made out to cash.
Mr Dunne confirmed that he and his wife went to Mr Haughey's home for dinner on October 9th, 1992. Mr Dunne's solicitor, Mr Noel Smyth, and his wife, also attended.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, asked him: "Did anyone have any discussion with you at that dinner about finances?"
Mr Dunne replied: "Definitely not."
Mr Coughlan asked: "Did anyone say to you the lad's business might be in a bit of trouble, or anything like that?"
"No, sir," replied Mr Dunne.
Mr Dunne said, however, that he recalled being asked to make a contribution to Celtic Helicopters by Mr John Barnacle, a joint owner of the company. Mr Barnacle had told him the company had some financial difficulties and he then wrote the three cheques.
He said he never gave instructions for the cheques to be lodged with Carlisle Trust or be broken into the two sums of £100,000 and £80,000.
Mr Dunne was in the Far East on a buying trip and holiday with Mr Smyth in late November 1992 when the cheques were dated. As a result, he said, he must have written the cheques before going away earlier in the month.
Mr Dunne said a "vague recollection" of the payment had returned only in the past few days after he heard evidence at the tribunal. He had not recalled it in 1997 prior to the McCracken tribunal, but instead believed the three cheques had been written for his personal use.
Mr Dunne said he could not recall ever discussing Celtic Helicopters with Mr Haughey. Asked by Mr Coughlan whether he could remember discussing money with the former Taoiseach, he replied "No".
Mr Dunne added that Mr Ciaran Haughey and Mr Barnacle were the only two people he dealt with regarding Celtic Helicopters. The latter was the only one with whom he discussed business matters relating to the company.
Mr Dunne said he did not know the purpose of the payment. He ruled out the possibility of it being an investment, adding: "I never invested in Celtic Helicopters".
Mr Dunne said it was possible it was a loan, although if that was the case there should be supporting documentation available. Alternatively, the money could have been aimed at helping Celtic Helicopters through a difficult financial period.
"If a company had a financial difficulty and if it was, in my opinion, in the interests of Dunnes Stores to keep that company in business, I could have put money into the company so that it could continue to provide us the service," he said.
Mr Dunne said he could not identify a commercial reason for keeping the company in business, but that he must have had a reason at the time. No goods or services were provided in return for the payment.
When faced with Mr Barnacle's evidence that he never solicited Mr Dunne for a payment, Mr Dunne replied: "My recollection is different to what he is saying."
Mr Dunne further recalled handing three drafts totalling £210,000 to Mr Haughey at Abbeville in the summer of 1991, a year before the dinner there. He had no doubt Mr Haughey knew he had received that money.
Counsel for Mr Haughey, Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, challenged Mr Dunne's recollection of this payment.
Asked why the three drafts had been made out to other people instead of cash, Mr Dunne said he felt this was a safer approach. "If I had a bank draft made out to cash and then if that fell out of my pocket anybody could have cashed it."
In relation to the November 1992 cheques, Mr Dunne said he had not recalled their true purpose at the time of a litigation battle between him and the company in 1994. He had believed they were written for his own benefit.
Mr Dunne accepted that he told Mr Joe Cummins, a former manager at Dunnes Stores, to write the cheques and make sure they were not traced in the accounts.
