Mr Ben Dunne has said he never thought of his large financial donations to the former Taoiseach, Mr C.J. Haughey, as his own money, but believed he was spending "Dunnes Stores money".
After Mr Des Traynor, Mr Haughey's personal financial adviser, had made an approach to Mr Noel Fox requesting money for the then Taoiseach, Mr Dunne knew "definitely" that he would obtain the funds through a Middle Eastern trading company and that the money would be that of Dunnes Stores.
The senior counsel to the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said Mr Fox's understanding was that Mr Dunne would personally fund the donation to Mr Haughey.
"I didn't see any difference between Dunnes Stores money and my money. I thought of it as all the one," Mr Dunne told the tribunal.
Mr Dunne said he had now become aware that he had authorised a payment of £282,500 to a company called Tripleplan in May 1987, but he vehemently denied knowing the payment was connected with Mr Haughey.
Although he was aware that payments to the Cayman banker, Mr John Furze, were linked to Mr Haughey and were "potentially explosive", he had not realised the same significance was attached to the Tripleplan cheque, he told the tribunal.
Mr Dunne said he genuinely could not recall the payment to Tripleplan in May 1987 and had only recollected it because of the facts presented by the tribunal. Had he known about it, he would have included it in his litigation against the Dunnes Settlement Trust, he said.
Mr Coughlan suggested that the public would find it incredible that Mr Dunne could not remember the cheque as he and Mr Fox had discussed it.
Mr Dunne accepted that the Tripleplan cheque had been discussed with Mr Fox and that the matter had also been raised with him by the company's auditors.
But he insisted he was not aware of what the Tripleplan cheque was for until it was revealed by the Moriarty tribunal.
"I was astonished when I saw it myself," said Mr Dunne.
Mr Dunne agreed with Mr Coughlan that the money for Mr Haughey which had come from Dunnes Stores in Bangor would have to have been posted to the inter-company account and would have to have been dealt with later in the company audits.
In this case, the money would have been company money.
Mr Coughlan suggested that this would have to be repaid to the company or in some way resolved.
Mr Dunne explained that he had not looked on the money as his own money, but as that of Dunnes Stores.
Regarding the Furze cheque, Mr Dunne said that when the auditor, Mr Kevin Drumgoole, approached him about it, he referred him to Mr Fox because he wanted him to deal with it.
He was not going to tell Mr Drumgoole what he knew about that cheque as it was confidential.
"If anybody was going to disclose anything, I was putting the matter squarely back to Noel Fox," said Mr Dunne.
Mr Coughlan put it to him that Mr Fox was merely a "messenger boy" in relation to the matter and asked why he should deal with the auditor.
Replying, Mr Dunne said he wanted Mr Fox to make the decision.
"It was never my money. I never thought of it as a personal situation or my own personal money. I was putting the onus on Mr Fox to deal with it in the company . . . I didn't want to make that decision," he said.
Mr Coughlan said that in his evidence to the McCracken tribunal, Mr Dunne had said the cheque he was asked to get quickly was the cheque to John Furze, dated December 2nd, 1987.
Yesterday Mr Dunne accepted that it appeared Mr Traynor's approach had been much earlier, possibly in February or March 1987.
Asked what had prompted his recollection of the payment to Tripleplan, Mr Dunne said that he accepted absolutely Mr Price's evidence to the Moriarty tribunal last week that he had authorised the payment.
The evidence uncovered by the tribunal had proved to him that this money had gone to Mr Haughey.
"There is no prompting. I genuinely have no recollection of the Tripleplan cheque itself," he said.