Fianna Fail had a long-standing practice of not discussing the details of individual donations with the party leader, the FF TD for Laois/Offaly, Mr Sean Fleming, said on the Ray Burke funding controversy.
Mr Pat Rabbitte (DL, Dublin South West) had asked if the Taoiseach could hope that Mr Fleming would act "as a kind of deus ex machina to rescue him from a growing welter of contradictions".
Mr Rabbitte was speaking during the debate on the resolution extending the terms of reference of the Flood tribunal, which was passed by the House.
Mr Fleming, who formerly worked as an accountant with Fianna Fail, said that he had assisted in the administration of the Fianna Fail fund-raising committee's activities in 1989, but was not involved in the fund-raising.
"On June 8th, 1989, Fianna Fail had a fund-raising luncheon in the Westbury Hotel. Paul Kavanagh, chief fund-raiser for Fianna Fail at that time, and I were in the entrance foyer of the hotel to meet the various people who were attending the luncheon.
"I was aware since the previous evening that Fitzwilton were making a large contribution to Fianna Fail through Ray Burke.
"When Ray Burke arrived, we asked him for the cheque . . . and we saw it contained a bank draft for £10,000 and a photocopy of a Rennicks' compliments slip. I was not satisfied that £10,000 was the full amount of the contribution.
"Both of us asked Ray Burke where the balance was. He told us the £10,000 was the amount that was being given to party headquarters and that the rest would be used for his constituency purposes."
Mr Fleming said that he spoke to "the then party leader, Charlie Haughey, who was at the luncheon", and Mr Haughey "indicated that we should leave the matter with him".
Mr Fleming continued: "In early August 1989, the party leader issued thank-you letters, on Fianna Fail head office notepaper, to the substantial contributors to the election fund. I note that Fitzwilton has acknowledged receipt of such a letter.
"I was elected a member of Dail Eireann in June, 1997. For the rest of 1997 there was no full-time financial controller in Fianna Fail head office. In July/August 1997, the party general secretary, Pat Farrell, contacted me and asked me whether Ray Burke had given £10,000 to Fianna Fail head office in June, 1989. I visited party headquarters and checked the cash receipts book and was satisfied that we had received £10,000 through Ray Burke during the June 1989 election campaign and that this contribution had been from Rennicks.
"I informed the general secretary verbally of this matter and he was then able to confirm receipt of the £10,000. Des Richardson, the party's fund-raiser, was in the room during some of this meeting."
Mr Fleming said he had returned from holiday on the Sunday before Ray Burke made his statement in the Dail on Wednesday, September 10th. He telephoned Mr Burke, who told him that he would be reading the text of a letter from his bank in the Dail confirming the details of the £10,000 payment to Fianna Fail's head office in June, 1989.
"This year, Fianna Fail headquarters asked for my help to prepare information for its affidavit of discovery for the Flood tribunal in respect of matters covering the period when I was an employee of the party."
He knew that the Rennicks donation would be disclosed and he had telephoned Paul Kavanagh in mid-March to discuss the matter. "Paul Kavanagh confirmed my recollection of the event and the discussion with Ray Burke in June, 1989. He made no reference to the possibility of an invoice being involved in the transaction.
On the sequence of events relating to the Rennicks payment, Mr Fleming said that he took the contribution back to head office on June 8th, 1989. It was receipted to Rennicks on June 9th, 1989, and lodged to Fianna Fail's bank after the weekend and presented for payment to Ulster Bank through the banking system in the normal manner. "I hope that this explains the sequence of events in relation to the receiving, receipting and lodging of the bank draft", he stated.
He added that Rennicks had stated that it had no record of having received the receipt. However, he was quite satisfied that a receipt had been issued.