O'Neill suggests £8,000 a dig-out

Manchester money:Tribunal lawyers have suggested a donation of £8,000 sterling to Bertie Ahern by a group of Manchester businessman amounts to a third "dig-out" rather than a personal or political donation.

Des O'Neill SC said a number of witnesses had changed their account of the meeting. As a result, the donation could be viewed as a dig-out given to ease Mr Ahern's financial difficulties due to his marital separation.

Mr Ahern said it was still his view that the money was given as a personal political donation after he made a presentation at a hotel in Manchester in 1994.

The only question he had asked was whether the money was for him or the party, and they had told him it was his.

Mr O'Neill said Mr Ahern's accountant, Des Peelo, in preparing a document for the Revenue Commissioners, had said "someone" told the people in Manchester of his "straitened financial circumstances".

"No one said to me on the night it was given on the basis that I had a marital problem," Mr Ahern said.