Oliver Barry has told the Flood tribunal it will not find a "scrap of evidence" to show that he made any further payments to Ray Burke or any other politician.
Mr Barry, who gave Mr Burke £35,000 in May 1989, has vehemently denied that £40,000 he claimed from Century Radio in February 1991 was used for any other purpose than the management services listed on the invoice he submitted.
The tribunal has spent the past week probing the accounts of Century and Mr Barry to determine whether a second payment could have been made.
Yesterday, the tribunal adjourned early so that its accountants could examine more closely an account relating to a Prince concert staged by Mr Barry in July 1990. Mr Barry failed to disclose this account, which was held in the name of his assistant Maeve McManus in AIB in Cork, to the tribunal previously.
In particular, the tribunal is examining a withdrawal of £30,000 from the account in that month. Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said the bank records showed that this was withdrawn in one sum as cash.
However, Mr Barry said the money was drawn piecemeal over the period of the concert and was used to pay suppliers and staff in cash. He said the bank manager, Mr Denis Kennedy, or one of his staff would come to the concert venue in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and provide whatever cash was required. The rest he would return to the bank.
Mr Justice Flood asked: "Are you saying that someone toddles around from the bank with a wad of notes and peels off the notes at your request on a Friday, or a Saturday when the bank is closed, and then goes back to the bank on Monday and says `the wad is down so much' and debits the account accordingly?" "Close enough to that," Mr Barry replied.
Mr Justice Flood said he understood that at the close of any working day, every bank balanced its cash. The chairman pointed out that he was, even if it was a long time ago, the son of a bank manager.
Mr Barry said that bank staff from the AIB would have brought the money to Pairc Ui Chaoimh, where his company was operating out of a Portakabin for the duration of the Prince concert. Mr Kennedy or one of his staff did this on at least three or four occasions, he said.
Mr Justice Flood said: "Even if you were the Bishop of Dublin, the bank would have required some sort of receipt if it was handing over a sum of £10,000, or £15,000, or whatever."
Mr Barry said he hoped the receipt was in the bank. He didn't have a copy.
Asked whether a cash payments book was kept, he said he wasn't sure. Details of the payments would have been entered on the list of invoices received.
Mr Barry said he had "forgotten" about the Prince account, which was a temporary account opened in Ms McManus's name.
pcullen@irish-times.ie
The Progressive Democrats' Senator John Dardis has called for the proceedings of the Flood and Moriarity tribunals to be broadcast on television and radio. "It is ludicrous the lengths that the media have to go to, to overcome the ban on broadcasting proceedings. It is crazy that they are allowed to get actors to re-enact evidence, but they are not allowed to broadcast it live," he said.
"The public has a right to see for themselves what goes on at the tribunals. It is common in other countries to televise court cases and public inquiries. It should be the same here," he added.
