National Toll Roads plc has denied any knowledge of a £10,000 payment reported to have been made by its former chairman, Mr Tom Roche snr, to Mr George Redmond, the then Dublin county manager, who retired in 1989.
In a brief statement yesterday, the company said it was "not aware" of the matter and that it was "now examining whether the alleged payments (sic) have any connection with NTR".
RTE had earlier reported that Mr Roche had given Mr Redmond £10,000 as a personal thank you" for the former county manager's assistance in advancing the West Link bridge project.
It was also reported that a building contractor who owned a strip of land on the route of the West Link had agreed to donate it to Dublin County Council in return for by-law approval for a small housing scheme.
According to RTE, Mr Roche said he saw no harm in asking Mr Redmond to see what he could do about securing this by-law approval, which was eventually delivered to the contractor's office by a prominent Fianna Fail politician.
He was quoted by RTE as saying that Mr Redmond had been "extremely helpful" in relation to land acquisition for the £31 million motorway scheme and, in return, he had given him a personal donation of £10,000.
The former NTR chairman emphasised that this was his own money rather than the company's. "I wanted nothing from George Redmond, but he helped to hurry up progress in little bits of ways," Mr Roche said.
In particular, he cited Mr Redmond's willingness to attend a meeting with the Guinness family, some of whose land was affected by the motorway scheme; his presence had lent "a certain gravitas" to that meeting.
A spokesman for NTR said Mr Roche had played no direct role in running the company since 1991, following completion of the West Link bridge. His son, Mr Tom Roche jnr, is NTR's managing director. Last week, NTR issued a statement clarifying its role in the 1986 compulsory acquisition of a bungalow and nearly two acres of land in the Strawberry Beds for £136,000, on the city side of the bridge.
The property was owned by Mr Jim Kennedy, a west Dublin businessman and associate of Mr Redmond's. While serving as county manager, Mr Redmond invested £100,000 in a city centre amusement arcade owned by Mr Kennedy.
It was reported that the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor (Dublin West), was also associated with Mr Kennedy and visited his arcade in Westmoreland Street. Mr Lawlor denied that he had met Mr Redmond there.
While it had "no wish to become involved in the current controversy", NTR said it was at the company's initiative that Mr Kennedy's property in the Strawberry Beds had been acquired, at a price which it had already agreed.
The statement confirmed that the house, which was occupied for a time by one of the site engineers, was sold at auction by Dublin County Council in January 1991 for £114,000, with the proceeds being remitted to NTR.
As developers of the West Link, the company had paid for all of the property which was acquired for the project, though it was nominally owned by the county council as the roads authority for the area.
