The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had £70,000 on deposit when he accepted a cash contribution of £16,500 from four supporters in September 1994, the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday.
The tribunal began hearing evidence yesterday from contributors to what it has been told was a second collection or "dig-out" by friends aimed at assisting Mr Ahern and made in the early 1990s when Mr Ahern was minister for finance.
Dublin publican Dermot Carew told the tribunal that he and three others discussed Mr Ahern's situation in his pub, the Beaumont House, one night and decided to have a cash collection to help Mr Ahern put a deposit on a house.
He said he contributed £4,500 in cash. Businessman Barry English contributed £5,000 in cash, and two long-time associates of Mr Ahern's, Joe Burke and Paddy Reilly, contributed £3,500 each, again in cash. The money was dropped into the pub by the other contributors.
On a quiet night in the pub when he was sitting with Mr Ahern, Mr Carew said he went and got a folder containing the cash and gave it to Mr Ahern. "I said: 'Bert, the boys and myself want you to have that . . . it's a few pounds we collected towards a deposit on a house'."
Mr Ahern, he said, was "absolutely amazed". He said Mr Ahern at first refused to take the money but "after a long discussion, well not long, a few minutes it was, and he said he would take it then, eventually . . . he said, 'I'll take it as a loan'."
Mr Carew said Mr Ahern took the folder and put it on his seat and placed his coat on it. Soon afterwards they were joined by Senator Tony Kett.
Mr Carew told Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, that he was not told by Mr Ahern at the time he was giving him the money that Mr Ahern had £50,000 in a bank account and a further £20,000 in a building society account. One of the contributors, Barry English, said he was 28 years old at the time he made his contribution, and had met Mr Ahern three or four times.
The money was returned to the four contributors in September last year, at the time of the initial controversy about payments to Mr Ahern, the tribunal heard.