Contributors to a loan for Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were asked to give cash so that the matter would remain confidential and because Mr Ahern might reject cheques, the tribunal was told.
Des Richardson, former chief fundraiser for Fianna Fáil, said he decided with the late Gerry Brennan that it was best to ask the selected donors, who gave £22,500 between them in December 1993, for cash.
"If cheques were handed over to Bertie Ahern there was a view taken by Mr Brennan and by myself that he might say, 'thank you but no thank you' and hand them back," he said.
He said they did not want cheques floating around made out to Mr Ahern because he was a senior politician. "Cash is legal tender. There is nothing illegal about cash," he said. "In 1993 cash was very popular in business."
The money was collected on the basis that it was a gift, but Mr Ahern only accepted it on the basis that it was a loan, Mr Richardson said.
The tribunal was told that included in the collection was a draft of £5,000, made out to Mr Richardson from Pádraic O'Connor of NCB, and a cheque made out to cash and signed by Mr Richardson, from his Willdover Ltd account, a company which he owned.
Counsel for the tribunal Des O'Neill SC asked why the draft was made payable to Mr Richardson and not Mr Ahern. Mr Richardson said NCB had made the decision "from a confidentiality point of view".
He paid a cheque himself instead of cash because it was more convenient, but he made it out to cash instead of to Mr Ahern for confidentiality reasons and because he "didn't want the world and their mother to know" he had given a cheque to Mr Ahern.
"I wanted to allow the man to have his dignity and not to be seen to be giving him money," he said. "I didn't have cash, I didn't have access to cash . . . the bottom line is it came from me and went to Bertie Ahern."
Mr O'Neill asked why he wrote a cheque from Willdover instead of his own personal account. Mr Richardson said he had a personal loan account within Willdover.
Mr O'Neill said the cheque was accounted for in the books of Willdover as a cheque related to the "Kilmainham function", an annual fundraiser for the O'Donovan Rossa Fianna Fáil cumann.
"I didn't put it in writing because I didn't want it generally known," Mr Richardson said.
Mr O'Neill pointed out that it was a "false entry".
"Not a hanging offence," Mr Richardson replied.
