Key quotes from the Mahon Tribunal
"I know Mr O'Connor. I know Mr O'Connor's family. I know a lot of Mr O'Connor's friends. He was in my office endlessly when he was chairman of NCB.
"I went to meet fund managers of NCB. I went to the K Club for him. I went to Druid's Glen for him. I know his brother, his brother-in-law, Justice Hennigan, very well. I know his wife's family very well.
"I was at functions in their licenced premises. I went to his own house. Now if years later Mr O'Connor wants to disown me and he doesn't know me well that's his bloody business not mine."
Bertie Ahern on Padraic O'Connor.
Is Pádraic O'Connor not saying that he believed that the £5,000 was through NCB and for me in my constituency capacity? And what I was told was that the £5,000 was to me personally. I mean, isn't that the only argument?
- Bertie Ahern
It's not the only argument because what the tribunal has to assess, Mr Ahern, in the first instance, is whether or not there was a dig-out for you. The information that has been advanced by you, based on your understanding of the circumstances, has an inherent component to it - the fact that Mr O'Connor was one of the donors to that fund.
Now if it is the case that Mr O'Connor was not a donor to that fund, the dig-out did not take place in the manner in which you have given evidence in the belief that it is what took place. That in fact did not take place if Mr O'Connor's evidence is correct.
- Des O'Neill SC