Former taoiseach Charles Haughey was "very gracious" when he met Ben Dunne's solicitor, Noel Smyth, in the wake of the 1997 McCracken tribunal, Mr Smyth said at the weekend.
Mr Smyth, who played a key role in the dramatic events in 1997 which ended with Mr Haughey accepting that he had received money from Mr Dunne, said he met Mr Haughey only once afterwards.
Speaking on RTÉ radio's Marian Finucane Show at the weekend, Mr Smyth said he was "very nervous" when he met Mr Haughey in the period after the tribunal.
However he said Mr Haughey was "very gracious".
"He never called me anything other than Nollaig. He said it's just one of those things . . . I felt he took the view that I was doing my job."
Mr Smyth acted for Mr Dunne in the case the supermarket tycoon took against his family in the wake of Mr Dunne's arrest in Florida in the early 1990s in relation to the possession of cocaine.
Mr Dunne wanted out of the family business but his siblings did not want to settle with him.
"He decided to have a go at breaking the [ Dunne family] trust," Mr Smyth said.
In preparation for the case, Mr Smyth collected information concerning payments by Mr Dunne to Mr Haughey and to political parties.
The information was to be used as part of an allegation that trust monies had been used for purposes other than those laid out by the trust.
Mr Smyth said he went out to see Mr Haughey who received him in his study and gave him "tea from a silver teapot". He explained to Mr Haughey that the payments to him were forming part of the case Mr Dunne was taking.
Mr Haughey was "very gracious" and offered to intervene and to try to settle the dispute. Mr Smyth said Mr Haughey was "worried, very worried" by the litigation but "did not anticipate the damage that was coming down the tracks".
Mr Smyth's evidence on his meetings with Mr Haughey during this period later played a key role in the tribunal's proceedings.
The information collected on the trust issue probably persuaded the family to settle with Mr Dunne, Mr Smyth said. After the case was settled, Mr Smyth said he went out to Mr Haughey and informed him.
When, some years later, the information began to come into the public domain, Mr Smyth went to Mr Haughey "and I pleaded with him to put his hands up. He felt that would be the wrong thing to do."
Mr Haughey also refused an offer of a loan of £1 million from Mr Dunne, to help Mr Haughey make a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue, Mr Smyth said.
