A search of records after the Flood tribunal was set up found that Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering had made three donations to the Progressive Democrats, including one following a letter from Mr Desmond O'Malley when he was party leader.
The total amount was £1,600, according to Mr Garvan McGinley, general secretary of the party from early 1996 to September 1998. The businessman, who now lives in Mullingar, was giving evidence yesterday.
He said the PDs had no record of the payments, but when the tribunal was established he contacted JMSE and Bovale Developments to be absolutely sure whether the party had received money from them. He spoke to the managing director of JMSE, Mr Frank Reynolds, who furnished him with records of payments made to the PDs in three separate lots. They amounted to £1,600.
Among the records furnished to him by JMSE was a copy of a letter sent to its company secretary, Mr Gerry Downes, before the 1989 general election by the then leader of the PDs, Mr O'Malley, seeking financial assistance.
Mr O'Malley wrote that the outcome of the elections, a general and a European one, would have a profound influence on the country's progress. "The success and future of every earnest business depends on having the right policies here at home and in Europe," he wrote.
He ended the letter with the words "Your generous assistance in the past is deeply appreciated and has allowed us to make a powerful impact on Irish politics". Mr O'Malley later wrote thanking JMSE for a contribution of £500 to the election fund.
Mr McGinley said he spoke to Mr Michael Bailey at Bovale, who said he believed the company had not given any money to the PDs. During the conversation Mr Bailey asked if he could speak to the party leader, Ms Mary Harney, because "I believe at the time he felt that the powers of the tribunal were quite severe on him, he felt unjustly". Mr McGinley told Ms Harney about the request, but she felt it would be improper to speak with him because of the ongoing tribunal.
Mr McGinley said he received a telephone call from Dr Mary Grehan, a PD candidate, shortly before the June 1997 general election. She said her husband, Gabriel, the former Murphy group director, wanted to speak to Ms Harney "in relation to Ray Burke and in connection with planning in north Co Dublin".
On June 22nd or 23rd Mr Grehan phoned him and said he wanted to speak to Ms Harney to inform her that Mr Dermot Ahern was travelling to London at the behest of the leader of Fianna Fail to interview Mr Joseph Murphy jnr.
Mr McGinley also gave evidence of speaking to Mr Grehan on January 31st, 1998. Mr Grehan told him he had left or was leaving JMSE. "He felt more bad news was coming down the tracks in relation to the whole planning issue and he did not want to be associated with it."
Cross-examined by Mr Martin Hayden, for the Grehans, he said he believed Mr Grehan wanted to convey facts about Mr Burke to Ms Harney, not rumour, as Mr Grehan had stated in his evidence. "If somebody wanted to ring the party leader at that busy time with rumour or hearsay, to be quite honest I would not have facilitated the call."
Questioned by Mr Daniel Herbert SC, for JMSE, he said he was aware of correspondence between Mr James Gogarty and Mr Michael McDowell, then a frontbench member of the parliamentary party, in 1996 and 1997, but he was not aware of its content.