A cheque for €5,000 was sent by Davy stockbrokers to Bertie Ahern's constituency office during the 1992 general election campaign with a note saying "good luck in the elections", the Mahon tribunal heard today.
Mr Ahern told the tribunal he had only recently found a compliment slip, signed by Robbie Kelleher of Davy, and said it had been sent by post to his Drumcondra office.
He said it was probably one of the biggest contributions Fianna Fáil received during the November 1992 election campaign, but that there were "a few" contributions of that amount.
The Davy cheque was received in November 1992 and lodged to a Fianna Fáil account at the Irish Permanent Building Society in Drumcondra in January 1993, the tribunal heard.
A microfiche copy of the cheque made out to Bertie Ahern was discovered to the tribunal by Davy. Counsel for the tribunal Des O'Neill said nobody in Davy knew the circumstances in which the cheque came to be paid. Mr Ahern disclosed today that his constituency office had recently found the compliment slip signed by Mr Kelleher.
He remembered the cheque and that it had been paid in the context of a general election campaign prior to the November 25th poll that year. "It wished me best of luck in the elections. It was clearly an election contribution," Mr Ahern said.
Asked by tribunal counsel how he was so sure it had been sent by post, Mr Ahern said because Davy had never been in his constitutency office.
"It could have come by carrier pigeon . . . how else would it come?" Mr Ahern said.
He said people in his constituency office were not "standing under the letter box" at St Luke's because they were out "trying to get elected".
Mr Ahern said he believed the finance committee would have acknowledged the cheque as it did with all such contributions. Whether or not he had also sent out an acknowledgement he did not know.
The tribunal has asked Mr Ahern to provide it with copies of the information from his constituency office.
Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon said he understood Mr Ahern and his constituency office were separate entities but that matters might have been speeded up if Mr Ahern had asked his constituency organisation to send on information the tribunal has been seeking since last November.
The tribunal is seeking details of the so-called Building Trust account, which is used for the upkeep of St Luke's, the Dublin Central constituency office.
Mr Ahern said his constituency office had "no difficulty" providing the information but that it was a separate entity.
Mr Ahern's lawyers also asked the tribunal to furnish them with copies of letters it sent to other stockbroking firms asking if any donations had been sought by or sent to Mr Ahern in the period in question.
Mr O'Neill said the responses from all the other stockbroking companies were in the negative and that there was no evidential value whatsoever in the correspondence.