MR BEN DUNNE was "extremely close" to Mr Charles Haughey, according to Mrs Margaret Heffernan. The relationship developed some time after their father's death in 1983. "It certainly would not have happened in my father's time," she said.
Her brother would not have discussed this friendship with her, she said, because he knew she would not approve of it. "I would not agree with being over friendly with politicians and certainly not with Mr Haughey," she said.
Asked why by Mr Denis McCullough SC, for the tribunal, she replied: "I don't want to go into it, but there was something between my father and Mr Haughey."
She said she became aware her brother was meeting Mr Haughey on a regular basis in Kinsealy. "He would have been cautious on what he would say to me, but he would let things slip, like `I was with Charlie Saturday morning' or something like that.
"I think Bernard was impressed he was able to ring up the Taoiseach of the country and things like that."
Asked if this relationship meant it would make it more likely he would give Mr Haughey a sizeable sum, she said: "I would be suspicious, yes."
She said that she thought it was not likely that he would have given it to him personally, but as a political donation. "I heard rumours he had given donations to different politicians. I would have thought he would look after Fianna Fail."
Asked about her knowledge of her brother's donations to other parties, she said the sums she would have thought about and those she was now hearing about were quite different.
Mr McCullough recalled what Mr Dunne had told the tribunal about playing golf in Baltray and then dropping in on Mr Haughey. He asked if this was likely. Mrs Heffernan replied: "From my knowledge, yes."