Fine Gael is in trouble. The convoluted money trail a $50,000 Esat Digifone donation took before it ended up at party headquarters in Mount Street is only part of it.
The hard question is whether, having found the donation too hot to handle, Fine Gael provided the whole-hearted co-operation it had promised to give the Moriarty tribunal.
On the basis of last night's formal statement from Fine Gael, the answer is "No".
Having outlined the circumstances in which the donation was made, and the unsuccessful efforts to return it, Tom Curran, the party's general secretary, came out with his hands up. And he sought comfort in Michael Noonan as a new brush.
He recorded that Fine Gael was now going to write to the Moriarty tribunal, at the insistence of Mr Noonan, and "offer it the fullest co-operation of the party in relation to the circumstances of this donation insofar as such matters may be relevant to its terms of reference".
In other words, now that the cat was out of the bag, Fine Gael was fully prepared to discuss its existence.
It hadn't done so under John Bruton's leadership because, apparently, the trustees sought legal advice, and a senior counsel advised that the matter did not fall within the terms of the Moriarty tribunal.
Mr Noonan, rightly, does not take that view. That new approach raises questions about how many other fiscal cats may be snoozing in Fine Gael filing cabinets, unknown to the Flood and Moriarty tribunals.
After all, $50,000 is relatively small beer when you consider the amount of money Fine Gael raised on coming fortuitously to government in December 1994. For three years before that, the party was staring bankruptcy in the face and had accumulated debts of £1.3 million which John Bruton was trying, unavailingly, to clear.
Then the showers gave way to sunshine with the rainbow coalition.
Within a year of taking office Fine Gael was reported to have cleared its long-standing debt under the guiding hand of Michael Lowry, fund-raiser extraordinaire and chairman of the party's trustees.
He had the magic touch. The man who had fund-raised successfully for Semple Stadium in Thurles was bringing the same energy to the finances of Fine Gael. It was all go for the minister for transport, energy and communications.
The corporate sector, which had ignored Fine Gael for years, suddenly found the party was a vital component in the democratic system.
And money flowed in.
The party went so far as to ape Fianna Fail and hold fund-raising functions in the United States.
We now know, courtesy of Tom Curran, that Telenor contributed $50,000 to be represented at a table there in 1995, even though it never took up its places.
We don't know - nor are we likely to be told - what other companies and corporations felt it was incumbent on them to support Fine Gael in government at that time. The party only releases such information when the donors agree.
Having been on the back foot for months, what with disclosures at the tribunals and attacks over political funding and spending in the Dail, Fianna Fail took real pleasure in Fine Gael's distress. Martin Cullen put the boot in for his adopted party.
Still carrying the whiff of Progressive Democrat probity about him, he referred to public disquiet at the donation.
The Minister of State wanted to know when Fine Gael had made the Moriarty tribunal aware of this donation, given that it was investigating the affairs and the decisions made in government by Mr Lowry.
It didn't stop there. When you sling mud in politics, you go for broke.
There was little point in Fianna Fail hammering Michael Lowry, who is no longer in Fine Gael.
But Jim Mitchell is. Deputy leader, in fact. And who was Mr Mitchell a consultant for back in those bad old days? Esat Telecom, of course.
Mr Cullen wanted to know if Mr Mitchell was aware of any conflict of interest; whether he had discussed the licence application with his party colleagues in cabinet and whether he was aware of the donation.
AS a political diversion, it was great stuff. But it glossed over the fact that, when it comes to raising money from the corporate sector, Fine Gael is in the ha'penny place.
And it ignored the reality that Fianna Fail is determined to retain corporate funding in the teeth of public criticism.
Evidence of political donations being "trousered" by former ministers has been shrugged off. The party needs the money and the business connections. But, of course, the mantra continues to be chanted: "No favours asked and none given."
That doesn't butter any parsnips for Fine Gael.
The latest episode paints both parties with the same brush. And it drops the new party leader in the clabber.
Having berated Fianna Fail and Bertie Ahern over corporate funding at the weekend party conference, Fine Gael is suddenly covered with confusion.
Its explanation of what happened to that particular donation ran to three pages last night.
And it still left unanswered questions.
Mr Denis O'Brien was upset. He categorically denied making or arranging any payment to Fine Gael in 1995-96.
And he threatened legal action against this newspaper, among others, for suggesting otherwise.
No doubt the Moriarty tribunal will unravel the tale.