Pre-tax profits at the crane firm owned by former Aer Rianta director Mr Dermot O'Leary plunged by €718,792 last year to €134,764. The deterioration was recorded despite an €807,201 rise in turnover to €5.4 million in the 12 months to end December last year from €4.59 million in 2000, writes Arthur Beesley.

The €985,010 pre-tax profit in 2000 was boosted by an exceptional gain of €464,197 on the sale of a fixed asset. Mr O'Leary established the Dalkey-based company in 1967.

He was the subject of controversy last week when he lent weight to an allegation suggesting the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, had left unpaid a €5,000 bill for drink and tobacco with Aer Rianta in the early 1990s.

He said he had been made aware of the claims in 1993, when he was acting chairman of the State airports company.

With Crane Hire's operating profits falling last year to €318,874 from €520,813, accounts newly lodged in the Companies Office disclose a sharp rise in costs at the firm. Administrative expenses rose by €455,599 to €2.1 million while distribution costs rose €553,541 to €2.4 million. The company's retained profit at the end of 2001 was €3.63 million, up from €3.49 million a year earlier.

The latest Companies Office filings show the crane firm spent €718,671 on plant and machinery in 2000, bringing the book value of its plant at cost to €9.1 million. After depreciation, the net book value of the plant was €5.22 million at the end of the year. The firm's net assets were worth €3.69 million at the end of 2001, up from €3.56 million a year earlier.

A Fianna Fáil activist and former chairman of CIÉ, Mr O'Leary owns 50 per cent of the firm. His wife, Ms Margaret O'Leary, owns 25 per cent, and a son, Mr Jarlath O'Leary, owns 25 per cent. Records show that another son, Mr Dermot O'Leary junior, ceased to be a director on October 4th.

The former Aer Rianta director has said that his intervention in the "brandy and cigars" affair was not linked to the completion of his second five-year term on the Aer Rianta board.

It was expected that he would not be reappointed for another term by the Government.

Mr Brennan was exonerated in separate reports into the allegations by the Department of Transport and Aer Rianta. Published earlier this week, the Aer Rianta report said there had been a "divergence" between evidence presented by Mr O'Leary and that of the company's chief executive in 1993, Mr Derek Keogh, about an alleged conversation.