Businessman Tom Gilmartin has denied a £50,000 cheque handed over to the-then Fianna Fáil party treasurer and Minister for the Environment Pádraig Flynn in 1989 was a bribe, the Mahon tribunal heard today.
Mr Gilmartin said today he had committed no crime and that he had never made a corrupt payment to anyone.
The payment made to Mr Flynn was a donation to the Fianna Fáil party, Mr Gilmartin said. Payments made to the late Liam Lawlor were not made by him but by Arlington Securities, which was seeking to invest in Ireland, Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal.
"I would not give bribes or corrupt payments to anybody," he said.
Tom Gilmartin
He also said it was "an absolute insult" to the people of this country that "the politicians were on the take for themselves, which they have been on a grand scale".
He said when he told Fianna Fáil party organiser Seán Sherwin that he had given the £50,000 donation to the party through Mr Flynn, Mr Sherwin had left the room and then come back and said the party had never received it. He had been told, he said, Mr Flynn "must've pocketed it".
Mr Sherwin had told him Fianna Fáil was "over £3 million in debt". "This was hardly surprising since msot of the money was pocketed by the greatest racket in Ireland - fundraising for Fianna Fáil," Mr Gilmartin said today.
He rejected suggestions that the only reason he had sought immunity from prosecution in return for his co-operation with the tribunal was because he feared he had done something wrong. Mr Gilmartin repeatedly said that the only reason he had sought immunity was because it was suggested to him that he should do so by his solicitor.
"I don't know why I would be prosecuted. I was persecuted, but I don't know why I would be prosecuted on top of that," he said today.
Tom Gilmartin
Paul Sreenan, SC for the Cork-based developer Owen O'Callaghan, put it to Mr Gilmartin that he "knew all along" that he had "committed the big sin" because he had given Mr Flynn a "bribe" for future favours and that this was "playing on your conscience".
Mr Gilmartin said he had "the clearest conscience in the world" in that regard. "I never lost a second's sleep," he said.
It had earlier been put to Mr Gilmartin by counsel that he had been advised retrospectively to say the payment was a donation to the Fianna Fáil party so that he would not get into trouble.
Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal in July that he paid the money to Mr Flynn solely because he was party treasurer. He denied the money was to ensure tax designation and said that was not a matter for Mr Flynn's department.
Resuming cross-examination at the tribunal today, Mr Gilmartin also rejected assertions that he had tried to bribe former assistant Dublin city manager George Redmond as "an absolute lie".
Mr Gilmartin said today he had been "the victim of outrageous, corrupt practices".
He rejected suggestions by Mr Sreenan based on what Mr Sreenan said were inconsistencies in his various accounts to the tribunal that he was a "compulsive liar" who had a "clear grudge" against Mr O'Callaghan.
Mr Sreenan said other comments made by Mr Gilmartin about a former counsel for the tribunal indicated he was "a dishonest person who is reckless about the reputations of other people".
In July, Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal that a decision to donate £50,000 to Fianna Fáil resulted in bankruptcy and financial destruction for him.
He said he made the £50,000 payment through party treasurer Mr Flynn to stop the "games" being played by Fianna Fáil members and others who were trying to thwart his plans to develop the Quarryvale shopping centre in west Dublin.
Today's hearings follow last week's appearance by the Taoiseach when he was questioned about a large cash lodgement he made in October 1994 and why he had not identified documents he should have identified in a sworn affidavit to the tribunal in February 2005.
Mr Ahern is expected to resume his evidence on Thursday.