Mr Ray Burke has denied he benefited personally from £174,000 received in political donations during his career in politics.
This was despite evidence given to the Flood tribunal that he put donations into his current account and used £63,000 to pay for a family car, a holiday, renovations to his home and a tennis court.
Mr Justice Flood asked Mr Burke to explain why political donations were used for his personal and general expenses between December 1989 and August 1991. "There is quite a number of items . . . which certainly are not political," he told the former minister.
Mr Burke said his Dail salary, ministerial salary, money from the sale of shares and inheritance money were also put into the current account and used for both personal and political purposes. "There was total intermingling of the account," he said.
Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said Mr Burke's salary was insufficient to cover the outgoings of his current account. The outgoings caused overdrafts and were offset by the political donations, he added.
"Had you not transferred these political contributions into your current account, your current account would have been £174,000 worse off," Mr Hanratty said.
"I did not benefit from my political career financially," Mr Burke said.
Over the 20-year period of his political career the donations would have broken down into about £300 a week. "You could not run without a political fund the type of political operation that was necessary . . . to get the results that I got down through my political life," he said.
He also deposited £6,000 in his wife Ann's account to top it up and compensate her for spending money on entertaining people.
"Regularly every morning and every evening people would come to our home. They would be entertained with teas and coffees or drinks or whatever else. That would all be done out from Anne's own account," he said. Some of the £6,000 would also be used for everyday family expenses, he added.
Mr Hanratty again questioned Mr Burke's logic in withdrawing cash from his Jersey account and taking it back to the Republic for his use "in dribs and drabs".
Why didn't he ask the bank to transfer the funds into an Irish account? Mr Hanratty asked. This would have avoided bank charges, the need to convert the money into punts and the inconvenience of carrying such large amounts of cash through airports. "It was just my choice," Mr Burke said.
"It was convenient for me to have the cash available for ongoing political purposes, and that was the way I operated."
He said he was never stopped by customs to explain why he was carrying briefcases of money but would have had no difficulty in explaining it.