Mahon Tribunal: The former Dublin assistant city and county manager Mr George Redmond requested his staff to draw up a confidential planning map that was later passed on to businessman Mr Jim Kennedy, the tribunal has been told.
Mr Gerry Carroll, who prepared maps in the planning department of Dublin County Council, described Mr Redmond as a bully who, if he were still working today, would be regularly up before an employment tribunal.
He also claimed that Mr Redmond had "four or five" draughtsmen removed from office, an allegation that the former county manager yesterday denied.
Mr Carroll told Mr Redmond, representing himself, that the reason council staff "jumped and leaped when George rang" was because they would be "ostracised" if they didn't comply.
"No-one ever wanted to get a call from you or someone purporting to act for you because you were a bully," he told Mr Redmond.
"If you were employed today, you'd be up before a bullying tribunal on a regular basis . . . Anything you wanted you always got. The point was: don't even go into George's office."
"You never saw if from the other side; you never looked down," he told Mr Redmond.
"The only time you knew about Irish life was when you went to play squash at lunchtime."
Mr Carroll said his life had almost been "ruined" and his wife had contracted cancer since he first gave evidence at the tribunal in March 2003.
On that occasion, he had not been allowed to identify Mr Redmond as the person who sought the confidential map detailing land ownership in Carrickmines, which was passed to Mr Kennedy.
Mr Redmond was facing criminal proceedings on corruption charges at the time. Mr Carroll passed his name on a piece of paper to the tribunal but Mr Redmond was not publicly named.
The witness said people had assumed that he had produced the map for Mr Kennedy. There was talk about a "Laois mafia" - both Mr Carroll and Mr Kennedy are from Co Laois - and claims that he was Mr Redmond's "bagman".
"I found it so that I couldn't work . . . The stress and tension almost ruined my life," he said. This arose because he had not been able to name Mr Redmond.
Mr Redmond rejected the evidence of the witness as a "cock and bull story". He said he'd never met Mr Carroll; their paths had never crossed.
There was "no question" of him bullying anyone. "I know nothing whatsoever about this map and this story," he said.
Mr Carroll, who retired this month on health grounds, earlier told how he drew up the map after a call from a woman in Mr Redmond's office.
The next day a consulting engineer working for Mr Kennedy, Mr Frank Finnegan, called to the council offices and collected the envelope.
Mr Carroll said he was surprised when Mr Finnegan asked for the document, but he didn't ask any questions.
He was worried that confidential information had left the council offices and that Mr Kennedy was involved. He said he knew Mr Kennedy "by repute". Through "hearsay and innuendo" he knew enough not to have anything to do with him.
He recalled Mr Kennedy's mother telling his mother back in Co Laois that "Jim had fallen in with a bad crowd up in Dublin".
Mr Carroll said he didn't think this was very likely.
It was more a case of a bad crowd falling in with Mr Kennedy.
He would be cautious about having direct dealings with Mr Kennedy.
Mr Finnegan, a friend of his, had asked him if he knew Mr Kennedy.
He advised Mr Finnegan that "if Jim had another job for you, he'd pay you for the last one but there was always one job waiting to be paid". Because of the depression in the building industry, Mr Finnegan took a job with Mr Kennedy in spite of his reservations.
Mr Carroll said he felt Mr Finnegan had been used as a conduit for the transmission of the information and that this had been triggered by Mr Redmond's request.
As time went on, he became more concerned about what he had done but because he felt foolish about it he said nothing.
Asked by Mr Redmond why he had "dropped everything" to prepare the map, he said he would obey the manager's orders without question.
"What the manager wanted, the manager got. You didn't question the manager."
