Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has dismissed claims that he gave implicit approval to the National Lottery to enter talks with Manchester businessman Norman Turner about becoming involved in his plans for a casino in Dublin.
Mr Ahern was minister for finance at the time of the talks in the early 1990s and had political responsibility for the lottery. The contacts did not lead to a formal deal between the lottery and Mr Turner's group Sonas, whose plans for the site of the former Phoenix Park racecourse were backed by US casino firm Ogden.
The rejection of the claims by Mr Ahern's spokesman conflicts with the account of former National Lottery chairman John Hynes, who said last night that he would not have entered talks without implicit approval.
The Mahon tribunal heard last month that Mr Turner gave $10,000 in 1994 to Des Richardson, then chief fundraiser for Fianna Fáil.
Mr Ahern's spokesman said the tribunal had not questioned him - as of Friday evening - about the talks between the lottery and Mr Turner. "I don't agree that there was implicit approval," he said. "At no stage did the minister involved have to give his approval because the thing was at such an embryonic stage, as I understand it."
While Mr Ahern knew Mr Turner, the spokesman said it was a "matter of public record" that the Taoiseach objected to the casino proposal when planning approval was sought. "An awful lot of State companies look at opportunities and it is only when they make a formal proposal that the Minister needs to give approval or otherwise. Clearly that didn't happen in this case. They didn't seek that level of support."
Mr Ahern's spokesman was responding to a weekend statement by Mr Hynes, former chief executive of An Post, in which he said he was comfortable that the State body was "not operating outside an envelope of departmental and ministerial approval" during its engagement with Mr Turner.
Mr Hynes said last night he stood by his remarks: "Are you suggesting that I did something without ministerial approval? There is no question whatever in my mind that as chairman of the company that my lines were clear with the minister. Had I not known that, I would not have gone one inch down the road . . . I was fully satisfied from my contacts with senior civil servants that the minister did not demur from my contact with Sonas-Ogden."
Mr Hynes said he did not discuss the matter with Mr Ahern. He said the lottery was not coerced into talks and saw them as being in its own interest until it became clear to him that the role envisaged for it was to "rent a reputation".
Mr Hynes said Mr Turner maintained Mr Ahern "was known to him, was aware of all aspects of the project, and was not opposed to the casino". Mr Ahern's spokesman declined to comment on that, describing it as "second- and third-hand" information. "There is no allegation in it and there is no suggestion of impropriety."
