Even the Flood tribunal, well used now to its share of distortions and evasions, has seldom witnessed such a farrago of lies and contradictions as Mr George Redmond delivered in Dublin Castle yesterday.
The 75-year-old former assistant Dublin city and county manager not only failed to confront the obvious, by identifying the sources of his inordinate wealth, but he actually retracted information he gave gardai last year.
Invited, like Mr Frank Dunlop, to "reflect" on the evidence he was giving, Mr Redmond only returned to deliver more sermons and self-justification.
It isn't clear how long he can maintain this pretence. Heavy fines and even imprisonment could be the outcome if he is adjudged to be obstructing the work of the tribunal. Already yesterday, Mr Justice Flood gave the witness his first "yellow card" by warning him his case could be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The DPP is already on Mr Redmond's case, and is preparing to appeal the leniency of a £7,500 fine imposed on him last month for tax offences.
At one point, the chairman said he found Mr Redmond's professed ignorance of his financial affairs "almost unbelievable". The witness knew his financial situation "down to the last penny," he said.
Just as Mr Dunlop was asked to write a list of names he had paid money to, Mr Redmond was handed a blue sheet of paper and a ballpoint pen. He wrote down just two or possibly three names.
The first, however, was the builder Mr Tom Brennan, who has already acknowledged giving Mr Redmond up to £50,000. Mr Brennan claimed the money was the proceeds of good days at the races, but Mr Redmond said yesterday the builder regarded the payments as "a retainer for advice given".
At least the second name, who Mr Redmond says gave him £10,000 over a number of years, was new. This person was putting his property in order for future sale and had a problem with roadwidening plans in the locality. Mr Redmond was responsible for road-widening. The matter was sorted out, but the witness insisted he had no part in the matter.
Asked who had introduced him to this businessman, he gave the tribunal the name of a county councillor. From the brief description of this man, it is clear he was referring to the late Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Sean Walsh.
The problem for Mr Redmond is that he signed a statement last year that made no reference to this payment, or two other donors he mentioned later.
As for the assertion in one statement that he was paid £10,000 to £15,000 a year by the three Gallagher brothers involved in house-building in Dublin, he claimed yesterday that this figure was too high. He said he "idolised" Matt Gallagher, who was a "warm, affectionate man", an understandable reaction towards a person who showered him with so much money.
From the 1960s, Matt Gallagher was a friend and leading contributor to Mr Charles Haughey. His son, Patrick Gallagher, gave Mr Haughey £300,000 in 1979. The Gallagher Group built Mr Redmond's house and later added extensions.
Mr Redmond and a friend got "a couple of hundred pounds" to put on the dogs from the hotelier P.V. Doyle as they were heading for Shelbourne Park one night. It was Christmas and the money was "given in the spirit of the season".
He insisted this was the only time he got money from Mr Doyle, but after the chairman threatened him with the DPP, he reverted to the version in his Garda statement, which records two gifts from Mr Doyle. The statement explains Mr Doyle's gift as an attempt "to ingratiate himself with me over his hotel development plans".
The Garda statements also record a payment of £10,000 from the Fianna Fail councillor Mr Pat Dunne. But yesterday Mr Redmond said this was untrue. "He paid me nothing." Asked why he had lied to the gardai, he said: "I don't know what got into me." Later, he claimed it was "a balancing factor for the absence of the name of the other person," a reference to the second person he identified to the tribunal earlier in the day.
Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, then raised a £5,000 payment to the witness by a garage-owner, Mr Brendan Fassnidge, in 1989. Mr Redmond said the cheque came as a surprise to him. Mr Fassnidge owned a filling station in Lucan which lost most of its business when a by-pass was constructed, he said.
The council sold Mr Fassnidge a small sliver of land connecting the rear of his garage to the bypass even though, as Mr O'Neill pointed out, there was a Department of Environment directive against new road openings on such by-passes. The officials were also against the proposal.
Mr O'Neill then pointed out that Mr Fassnidge was not the owner of the lands. In fact, he had ceased business some time before. He later entered into a contract to buy from a company which in turn was buying from the liquidator a plot for a filling station. His aim was to get planning permission for a service station and then sell it on to an oil company.
Mr O'Neill saved the most controversial matter till last. He referred to a memo in which Mr Redmond appears to indicate he made a loan of £110,000 to an amusement arcade owner, Mr Jim Kennedy, in November 1980.
In subsequent litigation between Mr Kennedy and a bookie, Mr Malachy Skelly, it emerged that Mr Skelly also lent Mr Kennedy the same amount at the same time. Mr Skelly claimed that money represented a one-third share on the deposit for lands three people intended to buy at Ballyowen Stud, Lucan. The lands were bought for £1.3 million, rezoned and sold within two years for £3.5 million.
Mr Redmond said he lent Mr Kennedy £70,000, not £110,000. He admitted having met Mr Kennedy only that year, and that were were no securities for the loan. Asked if he had any equity in the Ballyowen scheme, he issued an angry denial: "I don't take kindly to that."
His evidence resumes on Tuesday.