The Taoiseach has told the Mahon tribunal he "totally" rejected the suggestion from two friends in the early 1990s that they would hold a fundraising function to help him meet legal bills associated with his marital separation.
Mr Ahern said he accepted the £22,500 collected for him by friend and solicitor the late Gerry Brennan and Des Richardson, only on the basis that he would pay it back. "I didn't want to accept it," he said.
He said Mr Brennan and Mr Richardson had told him they planned to hold a fundraising dinner whereby 25 people would pay £1,000 each to raise funds for him.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
The only knowledge he had of the plan by his friends to help him out was a month or two before he was given the "dig out", he said.
They suggested the fundraiser, which he rejected, but there was no mention of a dig-out loan, Mr Ahern said.
"Gerry Brennan mentioned to me they were thinking of having a function at Christmas time and that they would ask the usual suspects along, and he put that to me," Mr Ahern said.
Counsel for the tribunal Des O'Neill asked whether Mr Ahern had rejected that suggestion.
"Totally," Mr Ahern replied.
"I did not want to have a function in the first place." He said he did not want to ask friends to make a contribution coming up to Christmas, and he was also conscious that those friends who might be asked to make such a fundraising contribution would also be the same people who would attend Fianna Fáil fundraising functions at that time of the year, including the annual dinner in Kilmainham.
Answering a question from tribunal Judge Mary Faherty, Mr Ahern said: "I would have rathered it was not collected for me at all, but it was and I accepted it. I could have given it back to them. If I had a chance today, it would have been a far easier thing to do, but I did not."
The tribunal has heard that Mr Ahern took a loan with AIB for just over £19,000 on December 23rd to cover a car loan and legal costs.
He agreed that his solicitor Mr Brennan had not taken the opportunity to tell him at that time that his friends had taken a collection for him that would cover those costs with some "surplus" should he need it.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Mr Ahern handed over three drafts to Mr Brennan to cover the costs, but he believed they were not lodged until January 11th.
Mr Ahern maintained that the £22,500 "dig out" was given to him by Mr Brennan at his constituency office St Luke's on December 27th, 1993, after the Leopardstown races.
Mr O'Neill put it to the Taoiseach that the account given by the tribunal by stockbroker Padraic O'Connor that the £5,000 he contributed to that "dig out" was different to Mr Ahern's version.
Counsel asked Mr Ahern if he accepted that Mr O'Connor's account, that the money was a political contribution, was "diametrically opposed" to Mr Ahern's version.
Mr Ahern replied: "That would not be an exaggeration."
He said there was no dispute that he got £5,000 from Mr O'Connor but said it was maybe a "misunderstanding" between them as to whether it was put into his personal account or his constituency account.
When he got the money, he was not surprised to have been told it came from Mr O'Connor, because he was a friend, and he was not surprised his friends had asked Mr O'Connor to contribute, the Taoiseach said.
He asked was not "the only argument" whether Mr O'Connor had believed he was giving the money for Mr Ahern's constituency fund and that he, Mr Ahern, had been told it was a personal contribution.
Tribunal counsel Mr O'Neill replied: "It's not the only argument, Mr Ahern. Because what the tribunal has to assess is whether there was a dig-out for you in the first place."
Mr O'Neill said that if Mr O'Connor's account of how he contributed the £5,000 was correct that it could be the case that "the dig out did not in fact take place".
Mr Ahern insisted Mr O'Connor was still a friend of his even if Mr O'Connor wanted to "disown" him. Mr O'Connor had been "very helpful" to him in the 1990s during the currency crisis and because he had such considerable knowledge of the markets, Mr Ahern said.
At no time until recently had Mr Ahern believed the £5,000 to be anything other than a personal contribution, he said. He said NCB, the firm Mr O'Connor worked with, had only ever made contributions to Fianna Fail using NCB cheques. The £5,000 contribution in question was in fact made using a 'bogus' invoice to NCB, which was examined in detail today.
Mr Ahern also said he had thanked Mr O'Connor for the contribution when he met him the following January. This was denied by Mr O'Connor in his recent evidence, Mr O'Neill pointed out. He said Mr O'Connor rejected the suggestion that he had been asked at any time for a personal contribution by Mr Ahern.
"Whatever row I had about this, Padraic O'Connor is considered a friend," he said.
Mr O'Neill asked the Taoiseach if any similar contributions of £5,000 had been received from other stockbroking firms at that time. He said he believed an exercise had been conducted to see if such contributions had been made. Mr Ahern said there had been an unsolicited contribution of £5,000 from Davy to Fianna Fáil's 1992 general election campaign.
Shortly before the tribunal adjourned, Mr O'Neill told the Taoiseach it is examining a £5,000 lodgement to an Irish Permanent account in January 1994.
The tribunal heard the amount was the subject of inquiries to the Revenue Commissioners from Des Peelo, who at Mr Ahern's request prepared a report for the tribunal on various transactions under investigation.