Ahern tells inquiry political gift was his to use

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern toldan anti-corruption tribunal on Thursday that a 5,000 poundcheque he paid into his bank account while finance minister in1994 was "a political donation for my personal use".

Giving evidence at the start of his third, two-day sessionin the witness box since September, Ahern said he could notremember who had given him the money but that he was sure itwas not intended as a donation to his Fianna Fail party.

"I would only do that if they said 'that money is for you,it's for Bertie Ahern, it's for your use,'" Ahern said whenasked why the money had been paid into his savings account.

Ahern, who has admitted receiving tens of thousands ofpounds from friends, businessmen and family in the early 1990s,is being questioned as part of a wider decade-longinvestigation into relationships between politicians andproperty developers.

He has denied any wrongdoing, describing his finances ascomplex but not improper following the breakdown of hismarriage. He won a third successive term last year despite anelection campaign dominated by revelations about the payments.

Ahern said he believed he knew which company the cheque for5,000 Irish pounds, then worth about 5,000 pounds sterling, hadcome from but that the firm had been unable to confirm it.

Asked to explain how a political donation could beconstrued as being for personal use, Ahern said that in thecourse of his regular political work he often incurred bigpersonal expenses.

"I could spend four or five hundred euros in any weekendaround the country in draws (raffles)," Ahern said. "I have touse my own personal money to do that. Every politician does."

Lawyers for Ahern criticised the intrusive nature of theinquiry on Thursday and said it was straying from the pointwhen Ahern was asked whether a further 7,000 pounds he receivedfrom his own mother was originally from his father's estate.

"I didn't ask my mother how she got it ... and I can't askher now," Ahern said of his mother, who died in 1998.

Ahern has attacked the tribunal which he says is nowdelving into every area of his finances having failed to proveinitial allegations that he accepted money from a propertydeveloper in return for favours.

The inquiry has not produced a "smoking gun" that mightcurtail Ahern's career after over a decade in office but hisappearances before it have overshadowed his third term in aprocess local media have dubbed "death by a thousand cuts".

(Writing by Paul Hoskins; Editing by Catherine Evans)