The tribunal's current hearings would never have been necessary if Fianna Fáil had properly investigated Mr Tom Gilmartin's £50,000 payment to Mr Pádraig Flynn, the former minister has said. Paul Cullen reports.
Mr Flynn told the tribunal he could have explained the payment to the party within 30 seconds if he had been contacted about it.
Judge Mary Faherty pointed out that in 1990 Mr Gilmartin told the Fianna Fáil national organiser, Mr Seán Sherwin, that he had given Mr Flynn a donation for the party. Mr Sherwin had raised the matter with the party's chief fundraiser, Mr Paul Kavanagh.
Judge Faherty said a "mini-inquiry" followed, but Mr Flynn had not been contacted. She asked the witness if he was surprised at this. Mr Flynn said he was.
"If they had received this information, they should have pursued it, either directly or through a superior, with me. If they had, we wouldn't be here today," he said.
It wouldn't have presented any problem for him. He would have called all the relevant people into his office and put the questions to them, instead of sitting in the witness box and waiting six years for an opportunity to tell his story.
Earlier Mr Flynn again rejected the evidence of his former colleague, Ms Mary O'Rourke, about the meeting Mr Gilmartin claimed to have had with the taoiseach and government ministers in Leinster House in 1989. He said he could not reconcile what Ms O'Rourke had said with what happened.
Ms O'Rourke has agreed with Mr Gilmartin that some form of informal gathering occurred at which the developer met Mr Charles Haughey and a number of his ministers in Leinster House.
She told the tribunal earlier this year that Mr Flynn invited and escorted her to the meeting. However, Mr Flynn yesterday repeated that no such meeting as described by Mr Gilmartin took place.
Mr Lawlor said there was "some credibility" to Mr Gilmartin's claim that he met the ministers, perhaps in an informal way as cabinet members returned from a vote.
Judge Gerald Keys said Ms O'Rourke had placed Mr Flynn at the meeting. "I take it you are rejecting her evidence," he said. Mr Flynn said he was.