One week after the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, appointed Mr Ray Burke to the Cabinet, Mr James Gogarty wrote personally to him concerning his allegations of planning corruption.
In a letter which was also sent to the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the chairman of the Dunnes payments tribunal, Mr Justice McCracken, Mr Gogarty complained of the "callous" and "inexplicable" treatment of his complaints by the former minister for justice, Mrs Nora Owen.
Without detailing his allegations, Mr Gogarty made it clear that he had given full information concerning them to two TDs, Mr Tommy Broughan and Mr Michael McDowell.
Mr Broughan was called to the witness-box yesterday to detail his dealings with Mr Gogarty. It emerged in evidence that it took Mr Gogarty 11 months to reveal to Mr Broughan his allegations of bribery involving Mr Burke.
And it took all of two years and four months for him to allege that money was paid by the developer Mr Michael Bailey. Mr Gogarty originally told the politician there had been one payment of £40,000.
In his evidence, Mr Broughan detailed his extensive contacts with Mr Gogarty over 2 1/2 years from May 1995. In all, he had five meetings and five long phone calls with his elderly constituent. Mr Gogarty sent him nine letters and the TD replied with five.
In their initial meeting, Mr Gogarty came to Mr Broughan's constituency clinic and stayed for over two hours. As ever, his main concern was his dispute with his old employer, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering, which he related in great detail.
Mr Broughan was left with the impression that here was a "remarkable" man who was "extremely fearful for himself and his family" because of alleged threats and intimidation.
In subsequent meetings, Mr Gogarty provided more information, eventually opening up with his allegations of political corruption. All the familiar allegations were there, but he also made claims which have not been heard before at the tribunal.
He alleged, for example, that the Murphy holding group had defrauded the Revenue of £80,000, and he claimed that Mr Michael Bailey had threatened him after the meeting in Ray Burke's house.
He also told Mr Broughan that a JMSE executive, Mr Frank Reynolds, attended the Burke meeting in 1989, an allegation he has retracted in evidence, although he didn't do so with the TD.
He also claimed that 450 acres of the 700 acres owned by JMSE in north Dublin had been rezoned, something that is now known to be untrue.
Mr Broughan wrote to Mrs Owen on at least half-a-dozen occasions but he agreed with counsel for Murphys that he didn't get "much of a response". He also put a number of parliamentary questions to the minister, which were met with brief, fairly anodyne responses.
If Mr Joseph Murphy is to be believed, it was only when Mrs Owen was leaving government that she swung into action. Mr Murphy alleges he was told by Mr Dermot Ahern that Mrs Owen was planning to give Mr Gogarty immunity against prosecution as a "parting shot" against Fianna Fail.
Raheny gardai told Mr Broughan it would be difficult to sustain a prosecution against Mr Murphy for the intimidation alleged by Mr Gogarty. Mr Broughan subsequently contacted the fraud squad.
During their meetings, he recalled, Mr Gogarty would often become agitated as he recounted his allegations. On one occasion, he came close to fainting and was only settled by a pot of tea.
At their meeting in September 1997, Mr Gogarty finally showed him the letter from Mr Bailey promising to "procure" planning permission on the Murphy lands. But he wouldn't let the TD keep it, or make a copy. He warned him to keep away from the window, and said he feared for the TD's safety while the letter was in his possession.
The meeting took place two days before Mr Burke was due to make a speech in the Dail on the allegations against him. Mr Broughan resolved to bring Mr Fergus Finlay to view the letter, but nothing came of this.
An irony emerged in the course of evidence. Mr Gogarty pointed out that JMSE in Dublin provided much of the steel used to build the much-criticised Sellafield nuclear plant.
Furthermore, the wife of a JMSE director, Mr Gay Grehan, was a prominent anti-Sellafield campaigner. Dr Mary Grehan carried out extensive research linking Sellafield to an abnormal level of childhood cancers in Co Louth and stood for the Progressive Democrats in the county in the 1997 election.