A businessman who gave £2,500 as part of a goodwill loan to Bertie Ahern has said he was told Mr Ahern was hard-up financially because of his marital separation.
Michael Collins said when he gave the money in 1993 he was unaware that Mr Ahern was travelling to Manchester with similar amounts in sterling and having wins on betting on horses.
Mr Collins told the Mahon Tribunal he did not ever travel to Manchester or go to horse races with Bertie Ahern.
But he said he was a personal friend of Mr Ahern and had met him through Des Richardson who was a former business partner.
It was Mr Richardson who told him that money was being collected for Mr Ahern and he agreed to contribute £2,500.
Mr Collins said he gave the money in cash from a float he kept.
He said Mr Ahern acknowledged the payment verbally and said on a number of occasions that he wanted to pay him back.
But Mr Collins said he just shrugged this off.
He said he received a repayment cheque of over €5,900 in September 2006 from Mr Ahern.
Mr Collins said he thanked Mr Ahern for the cheque but never thought about cashing it.
He said he had intended the payment as a gift.
