Flatley's Rolls vies with Bertie's shoes for charity funding

A kitchen touched by the hand of Pierce Brosnan, a Rolls Royce Michael Flatley claims to have had "a lot of fun in", the Taoiseach's tie, and a date with Maeve Binchy were all up for grabs at the RTÉ People in Need telethon last night.

Other much sought-after items at the celebrity auction, hosted by Ryan Tubridy, were tickets to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas and a selection of celebrity running shoes.

The kitchen, not Brosnan's own, came from the set of his latest film, Laws of Attraction, and is signed by the actor and his co-star, Julianne Moore. The Taoiseach's tie was worn personally by Mr Ahern on EU accession day and was a late donation yesterday, to go along with his well-worn runners.

The auction was one of the three main pillars of RTÉ's telethon last night, along with the finals of the tongue-in-cheek talent show, Can't Sing Can't Dance, with the alternative acts critiqued by Dustin the Turkey, and the last night of the week-long radio station RTÉ Charity 252.

While the main focus of the telethon was on last night's television show, a large proportion of the People in Need funding comes from events held around the State over the last few weeks.

Former Eurovision star Mickey Hart did his bit by singing his hits live in every county in Ireland over 24 hours.

Gardaí in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, held captive a number of selected individuals from the town, in their "Jail and Bail" event. The prisoners, who were locked away in the tallest tower in Roscrea Castle, were only released when a suitable bail donation was received from their employers. In perhaps the most charitable pre-election stunt to date, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael local council candidates canvassed for each other to raise money for the telethon. Cllr Billy Grimes of Fianna Fáil and Mr John Meehan of Fine Gael are both seeking seats on Ballyshannon Town Council in Co Donegal, but "changed shirts" for the day to collect money for the charity. Each candidate collected donations from locals who promised to vote for the other side. It was, however, a one-day event, they stressed.

Among the hundreds of cake sales and sponsored walks, smaller local events included the reversing of a truck from Mayo to Dublin and "wax fun day" in Galway, where women agreed to wax their husbands' cars if the men got their legs waxed.

More than 2,500 events were organised for this year's telethon, Mr David Harvey, chairman of the People in Need Trust, said.

"Most organisers tend to aim to top the €1,000 mark, but we're just as thrilled to get €50 from a kids' cake sale."

A suggestion by Fianna Fáil senator Mr Terry Leydon that AIB should donate the €14 million it had wrongly collected was "a great idea", Mr Harvey said. "I don't think we'd get the whole €14 million, but it would be nice to get a chunk of it and we can guarantee it would be distributed to the whole country."

Telethon funding is used to support small low-profile charities which have difficulty raising sufficient funds. The money raised in each county is re-allocated back to that county.