Charvet shirts for Mr Charles Haughey, arrived through the diplomatic black box system, even when he was in Opposition, the Moriarty tribunal was told.
His former private secretary and special adviser, Ms Catherine Butler, recalled the parcels arriving between 1982 and 1987 when Mr Haughey took up office.
"We would get a call from the Department of Foreign Affairs and they arrived over to Mr Haughey's office on the fifth floor of Leinster House."
At one point Ms Butler said she visited the Charvet shop in Paris with him, "and he bought me a scarf".
Between 1987 and 1990 when he was in Government, a parcel arrived on one if not two occasions.
The Government private secretary told her there was a personal item there.
Ms Butler said: "I just got a scissors and slit the top of it and there was a navy blue garment wrapped in tissue paper and I brought it into Mr Haughey's office.
"He ripped it open. We made the appropriate 'ooh aah' comments."
She said there was an invoice for a very large amount of French francs.
He asked Ms Butler to give the bill to Ms Eileen Foy, another private secretary, to ask her to pay the bill and he would reimburse her.
She was never aware that he sought reimbursement for events at Abbeville. She believed he reimbursed the party leader's funds for money spent on Charvet shirts and bills from le coq hardi .
Ms Foy would tell her that she needed to see Mr Haughey about payments.
Counsel for the tribunal, Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, said that Mr Haughey had put Ms Butler and Ms Eileen Foy, in a "central position" in insisting that he be reimbursed. Ms Butler said: "I would say that Mr Haughey is very confused about that."
Ms Butler also recalled going to see Mr Haughey in February 2001 when he phoned her.
Mr Haughey was "very, very distressed, stressed and despondent in his demeanour."
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