Lawyers for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern have launched a strong attack on the questioning of Mr Ahern at the Mahon Tribunal.
Senior Counsel Conor Maguire told the Tribunal that every day the Tribunal sits it reveals another intrusive inquiry into Bertie Ahern's accounts.
He said as it does that, it moves further away from hearsay allegations made against Mr Ahern.
This afternoon the Tribunal saw a copy of a compliment slip sent to the Taoiseach by DAVY Stockbrokers in November of 1992.
The slip was posted to Bertie Ahern and was accompanied by a cheque for £5,000 that Mr Ahern says he gave to the local constituency finance committee.
Earlier, Mr Ahern told the Tribunal that he received funds of €12,000 from family members in the 1990s.
Bertie Ahern was responding to a series of questions relating to lodgements to a savings account he opened with the Irish Permanent Building Society in January 1994.
Mr Ahern cannot explain the source of a £5,000 cheque cashed at the Irish Permanent on the day the savings account was opened.
He said he did receive a contribution from someone around that time but he could not recall from whom, he described the payment as, 'a political donation for my personal use'.
He told the Tribunal that his mother gave him a cheque for £7,000 which he lodged to his savings account in March 1993, a further £5,000 was given to him by his brother, which he says may be a lodgement made in December 1995.
Expressing his frustration with the questioning, Mr Ahern asked Judge Alan Mahon if he was expected to reveal the nature of his parents' banking affairs.
Loan for legal fees
Mr Ahern also agreed with lawyers for the Mahon Tribunal that a loan he took out with AIB in 1993 was not necessary because he had enough money in savings to pay a number of bills.
Speaking at the start of two days of evidence, Mr Ahern said he borrowed £19,115 to pay the legal fees of his former wife, a car loan she had and his own legal fees.
At the time, he kept cash savings of £54,000 in two safes at his constituency office and ministerial offices.
He said he wanted to keep his savings in the event of buying a new home following his marital separation.
It is Mr Ahern's third time in the witness box in the past six months, and comes only days after the High Court set a date granting his legal team permission to challenge certain aspects of the tribunal's enquiry.
On his way in to the tribunal, Mr Ahern said he had said last week that he would be at the tribunal today despite his High Court application attempting to restrict certain aspects of the tribunal's questioning of him.
Asked if he was ready to answer all the tribunal's questions, Bertie Ahern answered: 'All the time.'
