IT SEEMED Ben saveth and Ben gaveth away. Out of the mouth of his former chief accountant yesterday came a familiar number. Michael Irwin was asked to estimate how much fridge wizard Michael Lowry saved the Dunnes Stores company over three years.
The Lowry deal had reaped "super savings", Mr Irwin said. They had been "dwell in excess of £1 million", he added later, "around £1.3... £1.4 million."
The sum, enough for a generous gesture to a Taoiseach in trouble, hung in the air for a second and then was gone.
After two celebrity witness days, the tribunal put faces on the faceless who had signed cheques and organised or authorised payments. Once again they led us through the money maze.
First up was the man with the name for the job. Matt Price, director of Dunnes Stores Bangor, talked about the request from his superiors for a sterling cheque. Mr Price said he wasn't sure if it had been Ben Dunne or Noel Fox who rang him, but as he made notes he marked the piece of paper "pte".
Asked what this meant, he said: "When I asked a question as to what the money was for, I was told it was private." He dutifully wrote the cheque and sent it with a letter starting "Dear Noel" to Mr Fox.
Next up was Mr Irwin, who was further up the finance chain as chief accountant at the time. But according to his evidence, he was just as much in the dark at that point about the "private" payment.
Leafing through the indexed pages of a blue folder, he verified information on the selling up of the Lowry deal. He remembered Ben telling Mr Lowry that "he would make him a very wealthy man".
The language of accountancy lent itself to the situation when Mr Irwin described how Mr Lowry had sought a "reconciliation" of his financial position.
And in the best money pun of the day Mr Irwin said the Dunnes Stores Bangor account he had charged it to was a "suspense account". Noel Fox had given evidence the previous day that the money was "still in suspense".
So it seemed to the public who filled the chairs not reserved for barristers or reporters for a third day, listening intently to every word. But Mr Edward Comyn SC and Ms Noelle Butler BL - representing the public interest at the tribunal - said nothing when offered the chance to ask questions.
Then, like a scene from Ironside, Mr Irwin described how he visited Ben in Ben's house following his accident, when he had been confined to a wheelchair. As they talked about "a number of matters" Ben delivered the news that he'd "paid £1 million to Charlie".
Was Ben "the kind of person who would give £1 million to someone in financial difficulties and look for no favour in return?" counsel for the tribunal asked.
Mr Irwin took a breath, leaving us in suspense for a split second and said: "Yes."
Mr Irwin said he told Noel Fox the news about Charlie. Asked by counsel for the tribunal about the reaction from Mr Fox - who has already given evidence that he arranged the payments - he thought it was "pretty muted".
And how did Ben's sister Margaret Heffernan react to the news? Mr Irwin thought she was stunned. "Was she stunned speechless or did she say anything?"
She said, Mr Irwin replied, that she would have to " talk to Mr Haughey".
