Charles Haughey had "opened up his heart" to his former private secretary and special adviser, she told the Moriarty Tribunal.
On the tribunal's first day of hearings since the summer recess, Ms Catherine Butler said she had met Mr Haughey on a number of occasions since she last gave evidence to the tribunal in October 1999.
Ms Butler told tribunal counsel Ms Jacqueline O'Brien that she would "climb Mount Everest" for Mr Haughey.
She told the tribunal that she spoke to him by phone last Sunday but did not go to see him as he requested because she felt that the tribunal might view it as improper, but she would see him afterwards.
Ms Butler said she placed those constraints on herself because "I did not want to be accused of collusion and to protect Mr Haughey because I didn't want him to be accused of witness tampering either". She had attended a party on September 16th at his home to mark his birthday and golden wedding anniversary. She phoned him after the celebration to thank him.
Two days later, Ms Butler went to see him, and Mr Haughey told her he was going to Cannes. She told him she had been called to give evidence, but not yet aware about what. "He said: 'I'm sorry this has happened to you'."
He telephoned her last Sunday to say he had returned from Cannes and to invite her over for a cup of tea and a chat. When he asked, she told him she would probably talk about the party leaders' account and their conversations about it.
"Mr Haughey said that 'all of our conversations were private, Catherine. You know, everything I tell you is private'. I told him, you know I have to tell the truth and I intended to do so." Ms Butler also told the tribunal about a meeting in November 2000 when he asked her to call to Abbeville.
She was late for the meeting and when she got to the house she saw a man coming towards her who turned out to be Mr Haughey's friend and accountant Mr Des Peelo.
Ms Butler said she wasn't aware Mr Peelo would be at the meeting. He told her he was preparing a report on Mr Haughey's behalf. Ms Butler said she did not believe that was the proper way to go about it as she did not have her solicitor present .
She then went in to see Mr Haughey "ready to throttle him" but didn't, because of his condition. "Mr Haughey told me that he was in pieces, that he was trying to put things together, he had no recollection of certain matters and he had no records and he said 'I have a very good memory'." He was going to ask Ms Eileen Foy, his private secretary, a party fundraiser Mr Paul Kavanagh, and herself to all meet Mr Peelo separately, so he could prepare a report that might or might not be submitted to the tribunal.
She thought that could be a bit "cherry picking at the truth". She would like to help him in any way possible but she really couldn't deal with Mr Peelo, she said.
They had a conversation about the evidence she had given at the tribunal in 1999. She was never going to fall out with him over differences in their recollections. He was very ill and he had been in her life a very long time, she said.
