Compiled by
FIONA GARTLAND
November 4th, 1997
The Tribunal of Enquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments is established by the ministerial order of minister for the environment and local government Noel Dempsey.
Time spent on investigation can pay considerable dividends in terms of keeping the amount of expensive hearing days to a minimum . . .
Chairman of the tribunal Mr Justice Feargus Flood, in his opening statement at the first public sitting
January 14th, 1998
I came here to the tribunal to get the truth, warts and all, and if I did wrong I am ready to take my place in the queue to pay for it
Whistleblower James Gogarty
January 14th, 1999
FEBRUARY 10th, 1998
First interim report sets out the chairman’s plan of work, including the examination of allegations of payments to former minister Ray Burke by developers Tom Brennan and Joseph McGowan; by Century Radio’s Oliver Barry; and by builders Michael Bailey and Joseph Murphy jnr
He’s a Sligo man who went to England and made a lot of money. Came back. Wanted to do alot of business in Ireland. Didn’t work out for him. He’s not well. His wife isn’t well.
And he’s out of sorts
Comments by the then EU commissioner Padraig Flynn on the Late, Late Show about Tom Gilmartin, inadvertently persuading him to give evidence
JANUARY 15th, 1999
Will we get a receipt?
Will we f***!
James Gogarty’s question and Michael Bailey’s alleged response, on the way to the home of Ray Burke
JANUARY 19th, 1999
My life was seamless to the extent of politics; I was a politician from the time I got up in the morning until I went to bed at night.
Ray Burke on why he used political donations to pay off personal debts
JULY 9th, 1999
I will answer any question you ask me, to the best of my abilities, in relation to the lodgements and the dispersements
Lobbyist Frank Dunlop tells the tribunal he will co-operate after reflecting for the night at the chairman’s request
APRIL 19th, 2000
I tried to act as an honest broker – as a broker, I will delete the word honest – a broker in relation to facilitating the exercise
Frank Dunlop on how he paid councillors to ensure almost 20 sites in Dublin were rezoned
MAY 10th, 2000
The genesis of my extramural activity went back to around 1965
Former assistant Dublin city and county manager George Redmond on when he began to take money from developers
MAY 12th, 2000
JANUARY 17th, 2001
The late Liam Lawlor is jailed for the first time for not co-operating with the tribunal
In the opinion of the tribunal the transfer of Briargate to [Ray] Burke amounted to a corrupt payment to him from Mr Tom Brennan and his associates
Mr Justice Feargus Flood in his second interim report. Some 24,000 hard copies and 2,000 CD copies were sold
SEPTEMBER 26th, 2002
Much of the evidence to be tendered in the course of these modules will be technical, detailed, turgid and hard to follow
Patrick Gallagher SC at the resumption of tribunal hearings
NOVEMBER 20th, 2002
We sat on a seat and I put the money between us. He deftly picked it up and put it in his pocket Frank Dunlop on an alleged payment to the late Jack Larkin, a councillor, in Conway’s pub on Parnell Street, Dublin
DECEMBER 18th, 2002
JUNE 27th, 2003
Mr Justice Flood retires and is replaced by Judge Alan Mahon, Judge Mary Faherty and Judge Gerald Keys
The tribunal is satisfied that these payments were made to Mr George Redmond . . . and that they amounted to corrupt payments
Mr Justice Feargus Flood in his third interim report, completed in 2002, but delayed by criminal proceedings
JANUARY 21st, 2004
The tribunal is now satisfied that the public hearings of these inter-linked modules are unlikely to conclude until 2007 or 2008
Judge Alan Mahon in the tribunal’s fourth interim report, which outlined future work
JUNE 4th, 2004
JANUARY 24th, 2005
Former minister Ray Burke is jailed for tax offences
SEPTEMBER 21st, 2006
The Irish Times publishes a report revealing that the tribunal was examining alleged payments to then taoiseach Bertie Ahern
We’ve survived it
Former leader of the Progressive Democrats Michael McDowell to Ahern after a press conference to announce an end to their stand-off over Ahern’s finances
OCTOBER 11th, 2006
He told me, some time in, or at the end of ’89, that he had given Bertie Ahern 50,000 at a match, that Bertie was on his payroll
Tom Gilmartin on a conversation with Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan
JUNE 8th, 2007
We heard this rattling and when I looked, here he opened the door of the broom cupboard and fell out of it
Tom Gilmartin on Owen O’Callaghan’s tendency to eavesdrop
JUNE 14th, 2007
I had enough to do
Bertie Ahern at his first tribunal appearance, on why he did not keep accounts
SEPTEMBER 13th, 2007
OCTOBER 24th, 2007
The High Court orders Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and Public Affairs Correspondent Colm Keena to answer questions from the tribunal in relation to the source of the article about payments to Ahern
I really, really don’t believe . . . that you or anybody else would put that together, other than trying to set me up and stitch me up
Ahern to tribunal counsel when he was pressed on the origins of two “dig-outs” in 1993 and 1994
DECEMBER 21st, 2007
We knew that Ms McGennis, to use a rather crude phrase, was riding two horses
Frank Dunlop on former councillor Marian McGennis, who supported two rival development projects
JANUARY 31st, 2008
I don’t recall them, but I have to state that they’ve been done and that they were done in sterling, and that’s the way it is
Grainne Carruth, former secretary to Bertie Ahern, changes her evidence about whether she lodged sterling on Ahern’s behalf
MARCH 20th, 2008
Over the period of time in question and subsequently, I won various sums of money (on horses) Some of these would have been paid in sterling
Bertie Ahern explains some sterling lodgments to his bank
JUNE 4th, 2008
DECEMBER 3rd, 2008
Last public sitting of the tribunal
MAY 26th, 2009
Frank Dunlop is jailed, having pleaded guilty to five charges of corruption
JULY 31st, 2009
The Supreme Court grants an appeal against a High Court order directing The Irish Times to answer questions from the Mahon tribunal about the source of an article on former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. It later awards costs against the paper, and the paper appeals the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
APRIL 21st, 2010
The Supreme Court overturns a refusal of costs to two businessman, Frank Reynolds and Joseph Murphy jnr, for their dealings with the tribunal. The tribunal faces a multimillion-euro bill.
OCTOBER 29th, 2010
Books of evidence are served at Dublin District Court on politicians Colm McGrath, Don Lydon, Tony Fox and Liam Cosgrave. They were charged with receiving money as an inducement or reward and all pleaded not guilty. Businessman Jim Kennedy also has a book of evidence served against him alleging payments to politicians.
JULY 29th, 2011
The Supreme Court grants Jim Kennedy a stay on his criminal trial pending its determination of an appeal from the High Court to stop legal action against him.
DECEMBER 7th, 2011
The Supreme Court reserves judgment on an appeal to prevent the prosecution of former Fine Gael TD and senator Liam Cosgrave.