MAHON TRIBUNAL:CORK DEVELOPER Owen O'Callaghan has denied he paid former taoiseach Bertie Ahern £50,000 in mid-1989.
He said the allegation was "absolute and total rubbish". Mr Ahern has also denied the allegation.
Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin had alleged Mr O'Callaghan told him he made the payment to ensure Mr Gilmartin was able to acquire Dublin Corporation land at Irishtown, west Dublin. The 69 acres were essential to the Quarryvale development, now the Liffey Valley shopping centre.
Mr O'Callaghan said he did not recall Mr Gilmartin ever even mentioning Mr Ahern's name to him.
Counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon SC said Mr Gilmartin believed he had a deal to purchase the land in early 1989, but due to the interference of the late Liam Lawlor and then assistant manager in Dublin Corporation, George Redmond, the land was put out to public tender.
The corporation received two tenders for the land, one from Mr Gilmartin for £5.1 million and one for £4.4 million from Windar Ltd, a company associated with Green Property Ltd, which was developing the Blanchardstown shopping centre at the time. Its tender included a higher figure of £11.4 million should the site get permission for retail development.
Mr Gilmartin said he complained of the interference to Mr Ahern, then minister for labour. He said Mr Ahern sent Joe Burke, then a councillor, to deal with the issue. Mr Burke tabled a motion at the council to accept Mr Gilmartin's tender and the motion was passed.
Mr Gilmartin had alleged that when he told Mr O'Callaghan he trusted Mr Ahern because he had helped him, Mr O'Callaghan said he had paid £50,000 to Mr Ahern to ensure he intervened and prevented Green Property Ltd from getting the land.
"Could anyone believe that?" Mr O'Callaghan asked yesterday. "That's absolute and total rubbish . . . I never gave a penny to him." Ms Dillon pointed out that at the time, Mr O'Callaghan had a deal with Mr Gilmartin in relation to land at Neilstown, west Dublin. Mr Gilmartin was to pay £2.7 million to Mr O'Callaghan to buy out the land so Mr O'Callaghan would not develop it as a shopping centre. She said Mr O'Callaghan would gain when Mr Gilmartin got the Irishtown land.
By the end of October 1989, however, Mr Gilmartin had defaulted on his agreement with Mr O'Callaghan to pay half of the £2.7 million he owed for the Neilstown land. Ms Dillon said a clause in the agreement allowed Mr O'Callaghan to insist that if Mr Gilmartin defaulted on his payments, his land at Quarryvale would have to be "sterilised" for five years, preventing Mr Gilmartin from developing on it.
She asked Mr O'Callaghan why he did not call in that clause when Mr Gilmartin defaulted, and then develop his own site.
Mr O'Callaghan said he should have, but at the time he was on very good terms with Mr Gilmartin, and Mr Gilmartin assured him he would get his money.
John Deane, business partner to Mr O'Callaghan, said Mr Gilmartin threatened to call the gardaí at a meeting in the Royal Dublin Hotel on the day of a crucial vote on rezoning the Quarryvale development on May 16th, 1991. Mr Deane said Mr Gilmartin threatened to "make a phone call, and two or three councillors would be arrested".
He said he was extremely curious about who Mr Gilmartin was speaking about, and thought if they could get the opposition "out of the way", it would be a job well done, but Mr Gilmartin would not give him any names.
Pat Quinn SC, cross-examining Mr Deane, said lobbyist Frank Dunlop had admitted to bribing a number of councillors to ensure the May 1991 motion was passed. "If he did pay them, he certainly didn't pay them with our knowledge or consent," Mr Deane said.
