Martin statement:In a statement last night, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, said:
"I wish to articulate my deep shock and outrage at evidence given by Mr Tom Gilmartin this morning at a public sitting of the tribunal.
"I am amazed that such allegations relating to me are now being made for the first time some 12 to 13 years at least after the alleged matters were supposed to have occurred.
"It represents a total travesty of my constitutional and legal rights to fair procedures to have allowed such malicious and ill-founded allegations to be made in circumstances which must have been calculated by the witness to do injury and damage to my reputation.
"For the record I volunteered a statement to the tribunal as long ago as November 11th, 2004, in response to a request from it.
"At no stage either before nor since has the tribunal ever indicated to me that such an allegation as that made this morning was being advanced.
"For the record I now wish to state in the most categorical terms that Mr Gilmartin's allegations are an outrageous lie. My legal team have communicated my outrage to the tribunal and have put it on notice that an application will be made to the tribunal by counsel on my behalf at the first available opportunity so that these matters may be placed on the public record."