Files left by a business associate of Mr Liam Lawlor TD in a Prague apartment that served as the offices for Mr Lawlor's company, The Irish Consortium, have been destroyed by the current tenant.
Mr Conor McElliot ran the Prague property consultancy for Mr Lawlor for two years, beginning in December 1993. He moved out of the apartment two years later leaving behind company documents and unpaid phone bills totalling over £900. The existence of The Irish Consortium came to light last week at the Flood tribunal.
Mr Lawlor said files relating to the company were still in the Prague apartment but that he had no contact with the current tenant. Last night Mr Lawlor described the material left in the apartment as "unimportant surplus material, architecture catalogues and so on". He said the bulk of the company files were with a Czech lawyer. He declined to give any details about the lawyer, identified by him at the tribunal on Friday as a Dr Kavalek.
He was unable to provide the Flood tribunal with the exact address of the apartment on Friday, saying the apartment was located in the area of Holesovice, Prague 5. The address is, however, available on the Fianna Fail party website.
Ms Miroslava Nezvalova ) sublet her apartment in the Holesovice area of Prague for two years from December 1993 to Mr Conor McElliot. Mr McElliot paid the apartment rent of 17,000 Czech koruna (£400) a month in cash.
"Never cheques, always cash and sometimes even in deutschmarks or Irish pounds that I had to exchange," Ms Nezvalova said yesterday.
She moved back into the apartment in December 1995 and discovered unpaid phone bills totalling 40,000 Czech koruna (£903). Some months later she destroyed all company documentation that Mr McElliot left behind as she said she had no use for it. Mr Lawlor did not disclosed the existence of The Irish Consortium to the tribunal until questioned about it last week. "Physical buildings in Prague and the Czech Republic are property projects that I have various interests in and I don't see them as coming within the terms of reference," he told the tribunal.
A company search by consultants based in Prague revealed a company called "The Irish Consortium - (Czech Republic) A.S." had been registered with the Companies Office in Prague on the February 15th, 1995. Mr Lawlor is listed as a member of the supervisory board on the date of incorporation, with a 33 1/3 shareholding.
The company's business activities are described as "providing activities in the area of administration of housing fund, purchase of goods in purpose of further sale, and real estate". Mr Lawlor visited Prague with PR consultant Mr Frank Dunlop in 1994 and 1995 and invoiced him £38,000 for what was described as "consultancy services".
The business purposes of that company, according to Mr Lawlor, include acquiring commercial properties for upgrading in Prague and Plzen, 50 miles south-west of Prague. Mr Lawlor said last night The Irish Consortium was no longer operational, although he was still involved in property deals with "several Czech municipalities" through other companies.
