Tea, sympathy and £210,000 from a big fella

TRANSACTIONS spoke louder than words that day. The big fella shared tea and sympathy with the most powerful man in Ireland. Nothing particular was said, but Charlie looked a bit hang dog. According to Ben he couldn't put his finger on it, but sensed that all was not right.

So as he was leaving he reached into his pocket, found £210,000 in three bank drafts made out to fictitious people, and handed them to the "broken man" who stood in front of him.

"Look, that's something for yourself," Ben said. At this stage of the relationship it appeared they had become men of few words. "Thank you, big fella," Charlie said.

Ben Dunne's account to the tribunal of what he says was his final instalment in person to Charles Haughey had a hint of Bogart about it. He didn't say what happened next, but we could picture the rain falling in sheets as he turned up the collar on his overcoat and walked away.

The most gripping show in town was in its second day, while across the road they got ready for the gala opening of JFK The Musical This was CJH The Money, and its Big Fella scene will go down in drama history.

When he arrived in the tribunal room yesterday morning Ben was his usual self, generous to a fault. One reporter asked him would he talk and he said. "Yeah, quietly. ,But give me a break. Come and have a pint with me some night in Castleknock. He offered another reporter his seat which he was about to leave to go to the witness box.

He had relaxed into his role as the affable millionaire, a sort of Daddy Warbucks of the supermarket world, and his audience had warmed to it. But no matter how many times the barristers tired, Ben refused to be cast as the puppet master.

Asked about his relationship with Michael Lowry he was adamant that it was business master and servant. "In no way did it cross my mind," he said, "it had no bearing on my mind that he was a TD."

And had he not got Lowry in his pocket as his only client for Lowry's Streamline business? Ben said it had been a "fairly balanced problem for both of us". If he pulled the plug on Lowry then Lowry could have pulled the plug on the fridges and cold stores in 99 stores.

So what about Charles Haughey, counsel asked? Was he not a "star that had already risen"?

"I had tremendous respect for Mr Haughey. I continue in my own way to respect him for what he has done for Ireland," Mr Dunne said.

But the Taoiseach was also indebted to him, counsel pressed. So had he or any member of his family benefited from any favour, grant, licence or benefit of any description? "No sir," Ben said. "No sir."

He added later that "Lowry and anybody else got business from me on performance". Was he not known as an astute businessman, and did Dunnes Stores not drive a hard bargain? Yes, he said, "but after some of the figures discussed here I wondered was I".

Once he had left the stand, a smaller, greyer man in the shape of accountant Noel Fox took his place. He had to be asked to sit forward so we could hear his precise soft voice.

Fox talked flatly about the phone conversations with Haughey's accountant, Des Traynor. Asked about Traynor's reaction to the news that Ben had decided to give £700,000, rather than the £150,000 he was asked for, Fox said quietly that "he was quite pleased".