THE MEP Mark Killilea has claimed that the former Taoiseach Charles Haughey saved Ben Dunne's life by intervening with the IRA when the millionaire supermarket owner was kidnapped in 1981.

Mr Killilea, who is not contesting the forthcoming Euro elections, told the Sunday Independent that this may have provided some of the motivation for Ben Dunne to give large sums of money to Mr Haughey.

Mr Killilea said: ``People say that this all started in a hotel room in Florida, but I believe it all started in a backward shed. Ben Dunne was held captive there and close friends of his have told me that the gun was literally pointed at his head, when suddenly he was released.''

Mark Killilea says he believes that no ransom was paid and that Ben Dunne was on the verge of being murdered but was suddenly released because of Charles Haughey's intervention.

``We all knew at the time that Haughey had involved himself in securing Ben Dunne's release,'' he says.

Mr Killilea's sensational claim was backed up yesterday by another still-serving Fianna Fáil TD who was a member of Mr Haughey's cabinet at the time. The deputy, who does not wished to be named at this stage, said: ``Haughey's involvement was not common knowledge at the time of the kidnap, but some people knew within a short time afterwards. That is all I can say about it; it is a sensitive issue.''

Ben Dunne told the Sunday Independent that if Mr Haughey was involved in his release, he was not aware of it and he dismissed any suggestion that there was any connection between his kidnapping and his financial gifts to Mr Haughey.

Mr Dunne said: ``It [the gifts] was nothing to do with that. To the best of my knowledge Charlie had no involvement with my release whatsoever. It's hard to know, but from what I know he had no involvement.''

Ben Dunne was kidnapped by the IRA in October 1981 on his way to open a new Dunnes Stores outlet in Newry. He was held captive for six days. It was never established whether a ransom was paid by his father, Ben Dunne Snr, for the safe return of his son.

During the hunt for the kidnappers, an executive of an accountancy firm was stopped by the security forces at the Border as he attempted to deliver more than £300,000 in cash to the kidnappers. Ben Dunne has never spoken publicly about the kidnap.

Mark Killilea says of Ben Dunne giving money to Charles Haughey: ``It's very hard to know what's in the back of all that. I have my own personal suspicions. If a man's life was saved Ben Dunne's life was at risk and Mr Haughey helped in some way or whoever helped him through Mr Haughey ... a million pounds from Ben Dunne is only like me giving you a tenner. Why wouldn't Ben Dunne give him a million pounds after that?''

After a round of golf in 1991, Ben Dunne called to Charles Haughey's home and personally handed him three bank drafts totalling £210,000.

Mr Haughey received $1.3m in total from Ben Dunne. Ben Dunne refused to make a voluntary statement to gardai about the money, but he was ordered to give evidence in Charles Haughey's trial for alleged obstruction of the McCracken tribunal. According to evidence given to the McCracken tribunal by Margaret Heffernan, Ben Dunne and Charles Haughey became ``extremely close'' at some stage during the 1980s, even though the relationship between her father, Ben Dunne Snr, and Charles Haughey had not been good.

Ben Dunne said that they met 50 or 60 times, almost all such encounters taking place between 1987 and 1991.

He wept at the payments-to-politicians tribunal when he saw Charles Haughey being publicly humiliated. He also said that he would not rule out giving money to Haughey again if asked.

``I remember the night that Ben Dunne was found walking down the road when the IRA released him,'' says Mark Killilea. ``I'd say he was stressed to the end of his tether, the poor man. He was let free out on to the road with his mind at its limit, lucky to get out of it. I think that's forgotten, the trauma he went through. It's all forgotten by certain sections of the media because it might favour Mr Haughey. They have polarised hatred towards him; they always have.''