Widow kept Ahern's cheque

Maureen Gunne held on to a cheque given to her by the Taoiseach in repayment of a loan made to him by her late husband, Fintan Gunne, the tribunal heard yesterday.

Ms Gunne said that after consulting her children, she decided to hold on to the cheque and the covering note "for sentimental reasons".

"Mainly because it's Bertie Ahern and he's Taoiseach . . . and it's just something we decided it would be nice to have," Ms Gunne said.

She sent a cheque for the same amount, €5,914, which covered the contribution of £2,500 plus interest, to the Mater hospital. The hospital had a lecture theatre named after her husband, she said.

The tribunal had heard that Mr Gunne made the contribution to Mr Ahern in December 1993. It was part of a £22,500 whip-around among friends of Mr Ahern made by former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson and the late Gerry Brennan, Mr Ahern's solicitor.

"Fintan would have considered himself a friend of Bertie Ahern," Ms Gunne said.

Asked if she was aware of the contribution her husband made to Mr Ahern in 1993, she said she "certainly was not" and had only heard about it when her son, Pat Gunne, phoned her to say Mr Ahern would be speaking about it on the news in September 2006.

Mr Gunne, a leading figure in the property world, died in 1997 and Mr Ahern attended the funeral, but he never mentioned the contribution to Ms Gunne either at the time or afterwards, in a social setting.

Tribunal counsel Pat Quinn asked Ms Gunne if she was surprised when she heard about the contribution her husband had made. She said she was, though her husband was "very generous to people who were in need". The tribunal heard that Mr Ahern wrote to Ms Gunne in September 2007, enclosing a cheque in settlement of the loan.

Mr Quinn asked Ms Gunne if she had any doubt that her husband's £2,500 donation was a loan. "If Bertie Ahern had said that there was a loan, well then it was, to me it was a loan," Ms Gunne replied.

Mr Quinn asked her if she was aware that, as a result of her donation to the Mater, the loan had cost double and Mr Ahern was not out of pocket, because his cheque was never cashed. Ms Gunne said it didn't cross her mind.