Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has told the Mahon tribunal of how he was given "sizeable" financial contribution of about £8,000 in £50 sterling notes at a function in Manchester in 1994.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
On the second day of evidence at the planning inquiry, Mr Ahern said he had gone to the function one Friday night at the Four Seasons hotel, which was attended by a number of wealthy individuals, some of them "worth 50 million plus" at the time.
He couldn't remember exactly when the function occurred - he said it was either at the beginning or the end of the football season, but wasn't sure. It was "either May or September".
Asked by one of the tribunal chairpersons, Gerald Keys, if he could remember who Manchester United had been playing on the weekend in question, "because it would be very easy to trace back" the events that way, Mr Ahern said he could not.
"I did look," he said.
He had stayed for a long time to answer questions and discussed the Irish economy, he said. In the bar after dinner, the owner of the hotel, Manchester-based Irish businessman Tim Kilroe, gave Mr Ahern an envelope containing the money.
Asked about the "whip-around", Mr Ahern said it had been represented outside the tribunal in a certain way that had not happened. "The idea that someone went around with a hat or a plate is not credible. These are serious people."
Mr Ahern said the dinner took place in the public restaurant of the hotel and not in a dedicated function room. There were about 20 people present in his group, but he agreed there would have been other people not connected with his group at other tables.
He had met the people at the event many times before and since, he said.
The donation, described by Mr O'Neill as a "whip around" was given to Mr Ahern later in the bar, the tribunal heard.
Asked how the matter was approached and how he was given the money, Mr Ahern said: "Precisely where I was standing I don't know, but I remember Tim Kilroe approached me and one or two of the others and said they appreciated me coming over, appreciated me being there. There had been questions and answers and general talk, and he said he wanted to make a contribution," he said.
He had been going to Manchester to attend Manchester United matches for 30 years, he said. This group had never given him a financial contribution before, but he had previously been given gifts of books or glass, he said.
He believed the money was given to him on this occasion as "appreciation" for the fact that he had stayed a long time and had taken questions. He said he asked Mr Kilroe if it was a political contribution for the Fianna Fáil party and was told it was a "personal" contribution.
However, Mr Ahern said he did not count it until he got back to Ireland, probably the following Monday. He did not lodge it to the bank immediately but put it in his safe, he said.
Mr Ahern said Mr Kilroe never asked him to do anything in return for the contribution. In fact, he thought Mr Kilroe had probably done more for him.
Mr Ahern told the tribunal that the business people at the dinner that night were mainly Irish people who had gone to work in England. They had given jobs to Irish people and invested in the economy here, he said.
He also described them as being "in a different league" in wealth terms to businessman Michael Wall. "I consider Michael Wall wealthy. I would consider the others extremely wealthy," he said.
For him, this was a "sizeable" contribution, although he believed for those individuals it was not. The Taoiseach said such contributions did not happen all the time, just in case anyone thought they did.
Mr Ahern told tribunal counsel he had nothing to hide about the money. The fact that he had lodged it to AIB on O'Connell Street in Dublin, probably one of the busiest banks in the country, showed that he wasn't hiding it, he said.
Questioned by Des O'Neill SC for the tribunal, Mr Ahern said he did not lodge the money immediately but had "definitely put it into my safe" and kept it for a number of weeks.
The £8,000 was "no big deal" - he might have used it on another visit to Manchester, he said.
The Taoiseach said that after the matter of the £8,000 had hit the newspapers in Manchester, he had phoned Mr Kilroe's widow and asked her to nominate a charity and he paid that amount of money to it, he said.
He did this because "I caused the family a lot of grief", he said.
Mr Ahern said he had contacted the Kilroe family "and apologised for the fact that I had put them all over the Manchester papers" because he didn't think they were too concerned about the Irish papers.
The Taoiseach said if he had believed the £8,000 would have caused him "all the grief it has caused me" he would have given it back to Mr Kilroe. Or he would have brought it home and "photographed it" so he could give the details to the tribunal.
The Taoiseach remarked at one point: "I wish he had just given me a season ticket for Manchester United."