Last October a former personal assistant to Mr Charles Haughey, Ms Catherine Butler, gave evidence of having told Mr Haughey in his home in Kinsealy in May 1989 that Mr Brian Lenihan would die unless he received a liver transplant.
Mr Haughey, she said, broke down and wept. He told her he intended having money raised for Mr Lenihan to go to the Mayo Clinic and asked her to contact Mr Paul Kavanagh, then the main Fianna Fail fund-raiser.
Mr Kavanagh yesterday said that around May 1989 Mr Haughey told him Mr Lenihan had only four weeks to live unless he had a liver transplant in the US. Mr Kavanagh was asked to discreetly raise up to £200,000.
Mr Kavanagh drew up a list of 16 people. He said yesterday all but one, Mr Leo Cafolla, a personal friend of Mr Lenihan's, were supporters of the party. The second name on the list was Mr Ben Dunne.
When Mr Kavanagh went back to Mr Haughey with the list, Mr Haughey drew a line through Mr Dunne's name and nothing further was said about it.
The question arises as to why Mr Haughey decided to rule out an approach to Mr Dunne.
The McCracken tribunal conducted an exhaustive investigation of payments by Mr Dunne to Mr Haughey, other politicians, and to political parties. It found that Mr Dunne had given £180,000 to Fine Gael between 1989 and 1993 but nothing to Fianna Fail. He had given huge amounts of money to Mr Haughey personally, of course, and political donations to individual TDs, mostly to Fine Gael TDs, although he gave a political contribution of £20,000 to Mr Haughey in 1989, and £1,000 to Mr Sean Haughey.
Mr Kavanagh was asked yesterday why he included Mr Dunne in his list of Fianna Fail supporters in the first place. He said a member of the party fundraising committee who had contacted Mr Dunne seeking funds had been told he made contributions to the political party organisations in constituencies where Dunnes Stores had outlets.
Ms Butler, in her evidence last year, revealed that during her years working with Mr Haughey in Leinster House she had copied his personal telephone contacts book. The book included a number for Mr Padraig Collery, the former Guinness & Mahon banker who helped the late Mr Des Traynor to run the Ansbacher deposits.
This is curious, as Mr Collery has said his contacts with Mr Haughey began in 1994, after the death of Mr Traynor. Ms Butler's employment in the Taoiseach's office ended in 1992.
The book also contained a number for Mr Dunne. Ms Butler said she could recall telephoning Mr Dunne on Mr Haughey's behalf. She could also remember telephoning Mr Noel Fox on his behalf. Mr Fox was financial adviser to Mr Dunne and Mr Traynor's contact when seeking funds from Mr Dunne for Mr Haughey.
Mr Haughey told the Mc Cracken tribunal that it was July 1993 when he learned the extent of the contributions which had been made to him by Mr Dunne. This occurred, he said, after he approached Mr Traynor about the matter and followed a visit to his home by Mr Dunne's sister, Ms Margaret Heffernan, who was seeking the return of the Dunnes Stores money.
Ms Heffernan was seeking the return of approximately £1 million. However, we now know the amount given to Mr Haughey by Mr Dunne was closer to £2 million. No mention of this was made at the McCracken tribunal by Mr Haughey.
Despite Mr Dunne's absence from Mr Kavanagh's list of targets, a substantial sum was raised for Mr Lenihan in a matter of weeks. At around the same time about £1.5 million was raised for the party's general election campaign.
So that the money coming in would not get confused, funds meant for Mr Lenihan were lodged to the Fianna Fail party leader's account, controlled by Mr Haughey. In a five-week period in May and June 1989, £180,000 was lodged to the account. Only £82,000 has been shown to have been withdrawn for Mr Lenihan's benefit.
Mr Haughey has been shown to have spent money lodged to this account for his own benefit. Cheques drawn on the account needed to be countersigned, but Mr Bertie Ahern regularly signed the cheques when they were blank. This left it open to Mr Haughey to fill them out.