The Taoiseach's former partner Celia Larkin told the Mahon tribunal today how she was asked by Mr Ahern to collect a briefcase containing a sum of about £30,000 from his constituency office.
The money had been given to Mr Ahern by businessman Michael Wall to carry out renovations on a house at Beresford in Drumcondra.
There was "a series" of briefcases lined up at the front of his desk at the St Luke's office, she said. Ms Larkin said there was always a line of briefcases there with government or departmental papers.
She said she did not know exactly how much money had been handed over by Mr Wall for her to administer for the house at Beresford, but she was "aware that it was in or around £30,000".
Ms Larkin said it was not something that was "sprung" on her. Asked whether she was glad to administer the money, Ms Larkin said: "Maybe not delighted, but happy to be of assistance."
She said Mr Ahern's driver gave her a lift on the morning of Monday December 5th to the bank in O'Connell Street. She did not open the briefcase or look in it before she arrived at AIB.
They went to the office of manager Philip Murphy and he took the briefcase and left the room. Ms Larkin did not recall getting details of how much sterling was given and what Irish punts were credited to the account, she said.
On the question of whether she would have wanted proof of what had been handed over in order to bring it back to Mr Ahern, she said: "I don't think there was any question with my life partner that he would think I had taken any money. Are you suggesting that?"
Tribunal counsel Henry Murphy said he wasn't suggesting "anything of the sort" but he thought she would want something showing the sterling that had been brought in and the Irish money she had received in return.
On that day Mr Murphy also assisted her with paperwork to open another account with £50,000 transferred from Mr Ahern's account, which was his contribution to work to be done on the house at Beresford.
The £50,000 was subsequently withdrawn in January and put into a different account. Ms Larkin told the tribunal it was taken out because the first account opened had been a fixed-term deposit account which and not a demand account, meaning the money was "not easily accessible" for the purpose of expenditure on the house.
Asked why she had withdrawn it, Ms Larkin said: "It was not my money and Bertie asked for it back."
Ms Larkin told the tribunal earlier she did not recall how long she was in the bank and that she was "more concerned" with getting out to see "what was happening on the radio".
"It was the day that Dick Spring pulled the plug on Fianna Fáil in government, which made me able to recall the events," she said.
Mr Ahern had been expecting to be elected Taoiseach in a new government prior to that day.