BLANCHARDSTOWN CENTRE:BERTIE AHERN has conceded that he may have told Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan that he would not give tax designation to Blanchardstown shopping centre, the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Ahern said he did not recall a meeting with Mr O'Callaghan in March 1994, but if Mr O'Callaghan had asked him about tax designation for Blanchardstown, he would have told him Department of Finance policy was against it.
The planning tribunal was questioning Mr Ahern as part of the Quarryvale II module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre is built.
Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin had alleged that Mr O'Callaghan told him he paid Mr Ahern £30,000 to ensure the rival development to Quarryvale did not get tax designation.
Tax designation would have made the development more attractive to investors.
Mr Gilmartin said Mr O'Callaghan left a bank meeting at AIB and when he returned, told the meeting he was certain tax designation would not be given to Blanchardstown. Mr Gilmartin said Mr O'Callaghan told him he "had it from the horse's mouth" and had paid for the assurance.
Mr O'Callaghan denied that he paid Mr Ahern any money. However, he said he did discuss tax designation with Mr Ahern at a meeting with him in March 1994 and received assurances that neither Blanchardstown or Quarryvale would get tax designation.
Mr Ahern had initially told the tribunal that he never discussed tax designation with Mr O'Callaghan.
However, yesterday, he said he could not recall what he discussed at the meeting with Mr O'Callaghan in March 1994.
"But it probably makes sense that he raised the designation with me because it was an ongoing issue for a long time," Mr Ahern said.
"It was a very live issue, the lobby was intense on me and on others to change the policy and to give designation to Blanchardstown . . . the policy line of the Department of Finance . . . was not to give an inch on that and we didn't to that."
He said if Mr O'Callaghan had asked him the question, he would have stated the policy to him.
The tribunal also heard that Mr Ahern met with American financiers Chilton O'Connor in early March 1994 at Los Angeles airport. The company was interested in backing another project being proposed at the time by Mr O'Callaghan, a sports stadium at Neilstown, west Dublin. The project was conceived as an alternative use for the site, which was originally designated for town centre development before Quarryvale received that designation.
Mr Ahern said the meeting with the bankers was brief because he was running late.
The sports stadium may have been mentioned, he said, but he thought the conversation was mainly in connection with the company's licence for the Irish Financial Services Centre.
However, counsel for the tribunal Des O'Neill SC read into the record a number of documents, including a letter from Chilton O'Connor, which implied the stadium was central to the discussions.
