The Labour group on Dublin City Council has tabled an emergency motion for tonight's monthly council meeting, demanding a report on all contacts between Dublin Corporation and the developer Mr Tom Gilmartin between 1988 and 1990.
The motion centres on the 1989 sale to Mr Gilmartin of lands in Quarryvale, west Dublin, and on discussions with him between 1988 and 1990 about his proposed redevelopment of Bachelor's Walk. It calls on the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, to confirm that records were kept of all meetings and to report by next month on which officials and public representatives attended.
The Labour group will have to seek the suspension of standing orders to propose the motion, because insufficient notice has been given, and will need the support of two-thirds of the 52-strong council to succeed.
One of the proposers, Cllr Sean Kenny, said he had been disturbed by a report in Saturday's Irish Times in which a former associate of Mr Gilmartin claimed the developer had been disheartened to find that "half the Dublin councillors had to be paid".
Mr Kenny said that as a member of the council and its planning committee during the period in question, he was "extremely alarmed" by this.
He added it was vital that the former councillor and planning committee chairman Mr Joe Burke immediately clarified "his role, and that of other politicians, in the planning issues raised by Mr Gilmartin".
Mr Burke's position as committee chairman and his apparent role as an intermediary between Mr Ahern and Mr Gilmartin raised the question of conflicts of interest, Mr Kenny said.
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