Mr Michael Lowry asked the son of former Taoiseach Mr Garret FitzGerald to intervene on behalf of Mr Ben Dunne in rent negotiations on a building in Dublin's north inner city, the Moriarty tribunal heard this afternoon.
In a statement read out by Mr John Coughlan SC for the tribunal, Mr Mark FitzGerald said that he was contacted during April 1995 by the then minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry who asked him about an employee of the estate agents Sherry FitzGerald, Mr Gordon Gill.
Mr FitzGerald is now group chief executive of the estate agents.
Mr Gill was acting in the role of rent arbitrator on Marlborough House. The building had recently been bought by Mr Ben Dunne - who wanted to increase the rent from £5 per square foot to £10 per square foot - and it's tenants were Telecom Éireann.
According to Mr FitzGerald, Mr Lowry asked Mr FitzGerald was there anything he could do to help Mr Dunne in the rent issue. He also said that Mr Dunne had just donated £170,000 to Fine Gael.
Mr Fitzgerald - who was a Fine Gael trustee at the time - told Mr Lowry that it was the first he had heard of the donation and that he could not possibly attempt to influence Mr Gill in his role of arbiter.
In his statement to the tribunal Mr Lowry recalls speaking to Mr FitzGerald on behalf of Mr Dunne, but, was not seeking to fix the rent, only to expedite the arbitration. He does not recall mentioning the donation.
The tribunal continues on Tuesday at 12 p.m.