Analysis:It remains unclear how the second Ahern 'dig-out' came about, writes Colm Keena
All of those involved in what the tribunal has been told was a second collection for Bertie Ahern in the early 1990s have now given evidence, yet it remains unclear as to how it came about.
The idea for the collection arose, the tribunal has been told, after Ahern departed from the Beaumont House pub at about closing time one Saturday night in September 1994.
Four men whom he'd been with remained behind: Dermot Carew, owner of the pub, Barry English, Joe Burke, and Paddy Reilly.
According to Carew, he asked Burke: "Where's Bert staying tonight? Is he not staying with you?"
From this arose the idea to have a collection for Ahern, to help him put the deposit on a house.
As the tribunal has pointed out to the witnesses, Ahern at the time had a good job (minister for finance), had £70,000 on deposit (though he didn't tell his friends that), and had the use of an apartment in St Luke's, Drumcondra, which seemingly had been renovated for precisely this reason in 1992.
Ahern had separated from his wife, and left the family home, as far back as 1987.
He stayed at various times with his mother, Burke, and in St Luke's.
Burke, in his evidence yesterday, referred to what he said were reports at the time the Fianna Fáil leadership position was vacated by the late Charles Haughey of cabinet colleagues referring to Ahern as "the rat in an anorak" and of how it would be "nice to know where the taoiseach lives".
Such comments at the time of the leadership being open were political.
But that was in 1992.
When Burke was asked how the 1992 leadership issue could lead to four men deciding, two and a half years later, to have a collection to help Ahern buy a house, Burke replied with a question of his own: "Who knows why a sequence of events happens at different times?"
The tribunal's inquiries into Ahern's finances had been under way in private since 2005.
Fundraiser Des Richardson, on Ahern's behalf, met Pádraic O'Connor of NCB in 2005 and 2006, to discuss with him a cheque payment which formed part of the transactions being reviewed.
However no one ever queried any of the other contributors to the two dig-outs, prior to the tribunal being given their names by Ahern in April 2006.
Unlike O'Connor, all of the other contributors who have now given evidence have said they knowingly contributed to Ahern personally.
The organisers of the first collection said they asked the contributors for cash, as Ahern, they said, might not accept or cash a cheque if given one.
By a complete coincidence, the contributors to the second collection came to the exact same conclusion.
They all mentioned the point in the written statements to the tribunal.
The contributors of cash to the two collections, cash totalling £31,500 in all, sourced the notes from cash they said they had in their possession.
None made a bank withdrawal.
No one has any records of the collections.
Burke, in his evidence, said he paid in cash because it was convenient, but in his 2006 written statement to the tribunal he said it was because it was believed Ahern would be likely to tear up a cheque payment.
Ahern was able to tell the tribunal, in private last year, about the second collection and who gave what, even though he had no written record, and had not discussed the collection with anyone prior to speaking with the tribunal.