BOTH Ben Dunne and Noel Fox, his adviser, were quite sure of one thing the money Mr Fox arranged to be paid to Mr Des Traynor, close associate of Mr Charles Haughey, was intended for Mr Haughey.
In letters to the tribunal, Mr Haughey has denied receiving any money from Mr Dunne or Dunnes Stores. He had been offered representation by the tribunal, but so far has not taken up the offer.
Mr Fox told the tribunal he had been rung up by Mr Traynor and asked if he would approach Mr Dunne about joining a consortium of perhaps six people who would each donate £150,000 towards assisting Mr Haughey, who was experiencing difficulties. He would not have dreamt of approaching Mr Dunne if he did not believe this was what the money was for.
When he did so Mr Dunne said he would take on "this problem", but he would need time. Asked how Mr Traynor reacted when he was told this he said. "He was quite pleased."
Like Mr Dunne, he was specific about the amount of money and the route it took up to the point of its receipt by Mr Traynor. Asked if he had any doubt the money went to Mr Haughey, he said. "I believed what Mr Traynor told me. I still believe it.
Mr Dunne made the same point.a He had no doubt that the money had been requested for Mr Haughey, and that this was where it had ended up. Supporting evidence for this contention from the fact that three bank drafts he gave directly to Mr Haughey ended up in an account in the name of the same bank as did the money which went via Mr Fox and Mr Traynor. Yet Mr Dunne had no dealings whatsoever, other than this, with either Mr Traynor or the bank.
In his evidence, Mr Fox described Mr Dunne as "a very generous man and very compassionate." And so it appears from the latter's account of how those bank drafts came to be given to Mr Haughey. He dropped in to his house for a cup of tea after a game of golf.
It was 1991. Mr Haughey appeared to be "very down", not that the former Taoiseach said anything to this effect.
But, Mr Dunne told the tribunal he knew what it is to be "down" and he fit this about Mr Haughey. He seemed "a broken man", and he was sorry for him.
So as he left the house he reached into his pocket and took out three banks drafts, worth £210,000 and made out to fictitious names, and gave them to Mr Haughey. "Look," he said, "that something for yourself." Mr Haughey replied "Thank you, big fella."
Mr Dunne said he never sought any political influence for this money. Nor did it occur to him that Mr Haughey would be in any way compromised by his donations.
He often bailed people out if they were in trouble. When the Fine Gael party said it was in debt he agreed to give it £30,000 a year over three years and then £100,000. He had similarly helped suppliers who were in difficulties.
Under cross examination, he said he made the payments to Mr Haughey on his own initiative, and not with the agreement of other members.
Further insights into his business methods were supplied by his responses to questions concerning his relationship with Mr Lowry.
They were very informal and, he agreed, involved a high level of trust. There was no written record of his agreement to pay bonuses to Mr Lowry, or any agreement as to the amounts.
When Mr Lowry came to him saying that he was buying a house, Mr Dunne said he would support him in that and arrange for work to be done on the house, because he had not paid him any of the bonuses he was due and Mr Lowry had saved him a lot of money. It was not unusual to arrange for work to be done on the houses of business associates.
He denied that he paid money into a special offshore bank account on Mr Lowry's behalf to facilitate the latter in hiding this money from the Revenue Commissioners.