The former managing director of NCB has directly contradicted what Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has told the tribunal concerning a £5,000 donation, writes Colm Keena.
If a £5,000 payment by NCB intended for Bertie Ahern's constituency operation ended up in what tribunal counsel yesterday described as the Taoiseach's personal "coffers", it raises serious questions for him and his party.
Yet that is exactly the implication of the evidence heard from former managing director of NCB Pádraic O'Connor; a political contribution from NCB to Fianna Fáil's Dublin Central constituency ended up in Bertie Ahern's pocket.
O'Connor directly contradicted the evidence given by Des Richardson, friend and associate of Ahern, who at the time of the payment in December 1993 was chief fundraiser for Fianna Fáil and a fundraiser for Ahern's constituency operation.
He has said the £5,000 was money was sought by him from O'Connor, for Ahern's personal's finances.
O'Connor was clear and emphatic in his evidence. The payment was made by NCB. He did not authorise a payment from NCB to Ahern personally. The payment followed an unwelcomed request from Richardson for a contribution to Ahern's constituency operation.
Crucially, O'Connor said he consulted a number of colleagues in NCB about the payment and how it should be made. He said their recollection of events is the same as his. Two of his former NCB colleagues are to give evidence over the coming days.
O'Connor told the tribunal his surprise was "total" when he saw Ahern tell Brian Dobson on RTÉ Six One News in September 2006 that O'Connor was one of a number "personal friends" who had made personal payments to him in December 1993 which he had accepted on the basis they were loans.
Ahern has told the tribunal in private interview that he "personally thanked" O'Connor for the £5,000 payment in January 1994. O'Connor said that never happened.
O'Connor said Ahern never discussed the payment with him, even though the two men met for professional reasons in early 1994. He neither mentioned the receipt of the money nor the fact that he considered it a loan, O'Connor added.
When tribunal counsel Des O'Neill SC put it to O'Connor that his and Ahern's versions of the payment were "diametrically opposed", O'Connor responded: "They're different," and laughed.
The implications however for Ahern are not funny. The tribunal, as is the way of tribunals, does not appear to necessarily accept that the money given to Ahern in December 1993 arose in the circumstances he and Richardson have outlined.
The tribunal has been told the £22,500 given to Ahern included £15,000 cash given by six named donors, four of whom are still alive.
When Richardson - who has told the tribunal he has never been a member of Fianna Fáil - was completing his evidence on Tuesday, his counsel Jim O'Callaghan asked him to confirm that cash donations of £2,500 each had been made by each of the six named individuals.
"Is there any evidence in the [tribunal] papers you have read suggesting that the people who gave the money did not in fact give the money?"
Richardson replied: "Not at all, no."
It says a lot about how the inquiry into the Taoiseach's finances is progressing that the question was asked at all.