£5,000 donation 'to fund Ahern's office'

The former financial director of NCB Stockbrokers told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that the company's managing director did tell him a £5,000 contribution to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was to cover his constituency expenses.

Chris McHugh, who left NCB in 1995, said Padraic O'Connor specifically told him the contribution, made in 1993, was to help toward the cost of Mr Ahern's constituency.

The contribution was needed because Mr Ahern, then minister for finance and Fianna Fáil national treasurer, was too busy and would not have time to fundraise for his constituency, Mr McHugh said.

The £5,000 was part of a £22,500 whip-round arranged by former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson and the late Gerry Brennan, solicitor to Mr Ahern.

According to Mr Richardson, the collection was made among personal friends to help Mr Ahern to pay legal bills associated with his marital separation.

However, Mr O'Connor maintained his contribution was a donation to Mr Ahern's constituency expenses and was made by NCB. Mr McHugh said yesterday he remembered his conversation with Mr O'Connor because it was unusual; the company had never made any political donations before that, he said.

He recalled Mr O'Connor coming in to the office when financial controller Graham O'Brien was present.

"He said he had this approach from Des Richardson," Mr O'Connor said. "Richardson was looking for three or four parties to give £5,000 each to fund Mr Ahern's constituency office."

He said he recalled Mr O'Connor mentioning something about competition and a suggestion that Mr Richardson might approach other stockbrokers to make the contribution if NCB did not.

Counsel for the tribunal, Henry Murphy SC asked if he was sure it was not a personal donation from Mr O'Connor.

"I don't think that he would ask me about a personal donation he was going to make," Mr McHugh responded.

He was questioned about the nature of the relationship between Mr O'Connor and Mr Ahern. He said he knew Mr O'Connor had advised Mr Ahern during the currency crisis in 1992, but beyond that, did not know if they were friends.

Mr Murphy asked why he thought the contribution was made through a false invoice, for Euro Workforce Ltd, instead of directly with a cheque from NCB.

Mr McHugh said Mr O'Connor was concerned about confidentiality. He admitted to feeling uncomfortable about putting a false invoice through the company. "We probably should have made it to the cumann," Mr McHugh said. "but . . . this was the way Padraic wanted to handle it."

The invoice was given to Mr McHugh by Mr O'Brien, Mr McHugh said. He presumed Mr O'Connor had obtained it. Mr McHugh signed the cheque for it, but, he said, he had no involvement in the preparation of the invoice, never met Mr Richardson and had no contact with Euro Workforce.

The cheque was not presented to the bank until March 1994 and could not be cashed because it was damaged, the tribunal was told.

A second cheque was then issued and was cashed. Mr Murphy read part of a statement from Mr O'Brien to the tribunal into the record.

In it, Mr O'Brien said Mr O'Connor had informed him in March 1994 that Mr Richardson had "been in touch", saying the cheque he had received had been damaged and he had requested a replacement.

Mr Richardson had maintained that he had no part to play in the Euro Workforce invoice, though he was working for the company at the time and had owned it previously, as Workforce Ltd.

Mr McHugh also said he told former chairman of NCB Dermot Desmond about the contribution after a phone call from Mr O'Connor about it in 2005. However, he did not mention the donation to Mr Desmond in 1993.