Property developer Mr Tom Gilmartin has described how a Fianna Fáil councillor asked him for £100,000 in return for his support for a shopping centre development in west Dublin.
Mr Gilmartin said Cllr Finbarr Hanrahan sought the money at a meeting in December 1988, saying it would compensate for the damage the developer's plans for Quarryvale would cause to his "friends" in Lucan.
Rival developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan, who later took over the Quarryvale project, has told the tribunal in a recent statement that Mr Gilmartin told him on the day of the 1988 meeting that Mr Hanrahan asked for £100,000.
Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal yesterday that he met Mr Hanrahan in Buswells Hotel after Christmas that year. As he walked down the stairs to the bar, he saw Mr O'Callaghan, Mr Ambrose Kelly, Mr Liam Lawlor and two others drinking at the bar. But by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, Mr Lawlor had disappeared.
Mr O'Callaghan seemed to be aware he was meeting Mr Hanrahan, whom he didn't know, and nodded to indicate where the councillor was sitting, Mr Gilmartin said.
He wasn't overly surprised to see Mr O'Callaghan, as he had met him earlier in the day. However, he hadn't told anyone else about the meeting with Mr Hanrahan.
Mr Gilmartin said he talked to Mr Hanrahan and showed him a brochure. After some chit-chat, Mr Hanrahan told him the project was going to damage his friends, "the little people" in Lucan, who had taken care of him. If he was to support Quarryvale, he expected to get something for it.
He said Mr Hanrahan wanted £100,000 for his support. He wanted £50,000 up front because he had met people like Mr Gilmartin before and they hadn't paid up, the witness said.
Mr Gilmartin said he left then without saying anything. On the way out, Mr O'Callaghan asked: "Did he tap you?" "I said: 'What do you think?' and I walked out." Asked about how he felt after receiving this demand, he said: "I thought if this is an example of how this country is run, God help the poor devils walking the streets in Luton looking for a job."
Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal, said Mr Hanrahan would tell the tribunal he met Mr Gilmartin at the latter's request. He told the developer the project couldn't be supported.
Mr Gilmartin said this was a lie and a fabrication.
Mr O'Callaghan, in a statement submitted to the tribunal last week, said Mr Gilmartin had asked him to introduce him to Mr Hanrahan. The two developers arrived together in Buswells and Mr O'Callaghan pointed out the councillor.
After 15 minutes, Mr Gilmartin walked out and Mr O'Callaghan said he followed him. Mr Gilmartin seemed "quite upset" and said Mr Hanrahan has asked him for £100,000.
"He said here he was trying to bring all the barefoot emigrants home from Luton and this f...er asked for £100,000," Mr O'Callaghan says in his statement. Mr Gilmartin vowed to go into the Dáil the following day and tell government ministers about the demand.
When Mr Gallagher put it to him that his account of the Buswells meeting left him in "a minority of one," Mr Gilmartin remarked that this was "par for the course" at the tribunal.
Mr Gallagher said that in February 1989, Mr Gilmartin had complained to the Dublin city manager, Mr Frank Feely, who made a contemporaneous note of their meeting. This records Mr Gilmartin saying that Mr Hanrahan had sought £100,000 cash in a brown paper bag.
Three others had "taken a similar line", he told Mr Feely at that time, and so he didn't bother contacting any other councillors in case 40 of them sought money from him.
Asked by Mr Gallagher yesterday who the other three people were, he instanced Mr Liam Lawlor, George Redmond and one other councillor whose name he couldn't recollect.
This politician, who was from the south side or Bray, came into Buswells when he was "the worse for liquor" and said he wanted to be paid.
Mr Gallagher pointed out that Redmond was not a councillor but a council official, but the witness remarked that it was "the same difference".
Mr Gilmartin also recalled meeting Fianna Fáil councillor Mr Seán Walsh, who gave him the name of eight councillors who would support a material contravention for the Quarryvale lands. He said Mr Walsh also warned him he was "being set up". He was being "shafted" and Mr Lawlor was at the centre of it.
Earlier, the witness denied that he had "doctored" his diary for this time, as Mr Lawlor has alleged.
He said the diary was actually a notebook which he used to list names, numbers and meetings. His actual diary for this period was no longer in existence.
The notebook was "all over the place" and he made entries in it at different times.
He used "whatever pen was available" to make these notes.