Minister for Finance Brian Cowen today told the Mahon tribunal he granted a private company right-of-way across state lands after an intervention from former Labour Party leader Ruairi Quinn.
Mr Cowen was Minister for Transport when he changed departmental policy to give Cargobridge Ltd access through the lands at Cloghran, between Dublin Airport and the M1 motorway.
The commercial right-of-way was granted followed lobbying by Frank Dunlop and was strongly objected to by Aer Rianta, the state body who then controlled the airport.
The Mahon tribunal is investigating claims by Mr Dunlop that he bribed three councillors for their support in rezoning the land from agricultural to industrial use.
Mr Cowen's department was contacted on several occasions during 1993 with requests from John McGuinness, Director of Cargobridge, for a right-of-way. Mr Cowen said he could not consider the request until there was planning permission for the warehousing development.
He later received a letter from then Minister for Enterprise and Employment Ruairí Quinn, in the Fianna Fáil/Labour coalition government, asking him to reconsider his position.
In the correspondence, dated May 24th, 1993, Mr Quinn said he had met with Mr McGuinness and was in favour of the proposed development.
It fitted in with emerging industrial policy at the time - informed by the Culliton Report and the Moriarty Task Force recommendations - on opening up competition and breaking away from semi-state monopolies, Mr Quinn suggested.
In the letter, Mr Quinn states: "Clearly it's not possible to obtain planning permission in advance of obtaining a right of way. This is clearly the nub of the problem.
"I would be obliged if you would have a look at the matter again and contact me as a matter of urgency."
Mr Cowen said he informed his department to reconsider their original stance on the Cloghran lands after this letter.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr Cowen said he changed departmental policy on the basis of increased competitiveness and economic activity.
"I was simply making the point - cutting to the chase - that I made my decisions on the basis of the objective needs of the situation, on the merit of the proposal and anyone who tried to reconstruct it as anything else don't have support from either department officials, myself or from the documentary evidence," he said.
"This proposal had a lot of cross-party support, ministerial involvement as well and the policy background ... is the opening up of the competition in the Irish economy, the need to recognise that we need public and private investment working to maximise jobs," he said.
"There were issues that had to be considered departmentally, and those policy considerations were looked at and dealt with."
PA