If ever there was a site that needed no whiff of controversy surrounding its purchase, it was the location of the Battle of the Boyne. Bought by the State to show the unionist community that we in the Republic value its historic significance, the transaction has since become a subject of serious concern for the Public Accounts Committee, the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Flood/Mahon tribunal.
It popped up again this week at that tribunal when a Tim Collins had one of those increasingly frequent lapses of memory among witnesses giving evidence. His recollection was described by Judge Mahon as being vague "even to a greater extent even than we might normally be used to".
Tim Collins is an interesting chap. He has been a close personal friend of Bertie Ahern for over 25 years. He is a trustee of the Taoiseach's constituency office, and was appointed in 1998 to the board of Enterprise Ireland.
Most intriguingly, he was the third man in the room during the famous 1988 meeting between Bertie Ahern and Tom Gilmartin at which the latter's proposals to develop the Quarryvale shopping centre arose. Quarryvale is, of course, also being investigated by the Mahon tribunal.
When identifying Mr Collins as the third man at the Gilmartin meeting, Bertie Ahern described him in 1999 as "one of my local supporters". However, just 18 month later, his status had changed, with the Taoiseach saying that he was "someone I know outside of politics".
Mr Ahern's efforts to distance himself from any political connection with Tim Collins arose out of the increasing pressure he came under in the Dáil to explain the details of the Battle of the Boyne site transaction.
And what Tim Collins failed to remember this week at the Mahon tribunal was that he had made a windfall profit of over €750,000 as a result of that deal. He had told the tribunal he had never received shares in any property company as payment for his services as a land agent.
However, when presented with documents showing that this was in fact the mechanism used for paying him with regard to his involvement in the Battle of the Boyne site, Mr Collins agreed that he had been mistaken.
The Boyne site deal is a sorry tale. Various attempts had been made to develop the land commercially, with both Liam Lawlor and Frank Dunlop involved in providing advice. Planning permission for a hotel and golf club was secured but never activated, and the 450 acres lay in pasture.
In 1997, the site was bought for €3.4 million by the McCann family, who control Fyffes, the giant fruit-import company. They formed a separate company to own the land, Deepriver Ltd, of which Tim Collins had 12.5 per cent of the shares.
Just over a month after the McCann transaction was completed, the then minister for foreign affairs, David Andrews, announced that the Government planned to develop the Battle of the Boyne site as part of the peace process.
Negotiations to purchase the site on behalf of the State began, and were concluded in 2000, at a cost to the taxpayer of just under €10 million. In only two years, the value of the land had trebled, netting the McCanns and Tim Collins a tidy profit of more than €5 million between them.
It then transpired that the actual transaction had been concluded in an unusual manner. Instead of directly buying the land from the company (Deepriver Ltd), the Office of Public Works had instead bought the whole company, whose only asset was the site in question.
In this manner, the company's owners (Collins and the McCanns) were spared the necessity of paying the level of capital gains tax due had it been a simple land transfer. That tax bill - almost €1 million - was instead borne by the OPW (ie, the taxpayer) when it wound up Deepriver some years later.
The Public Accounts Committee questioned this method of purchasing land. The OPW told them that it was all above board, that sanction had been obtained from the Department of Finance, and that anyway they had bought companies in this way on many occasions.
This, however, was simply untrue. The Boyne site was the first time that land had been purchased by the OPW through the acquisition of a company. And before the OPW appearance at the committee, there was only one other example of this occurring.
Fine Gael's Michael Noonan summed up the unease felt by members of the Public Accounts Committee. "I find it peculiar that an agency of the State should assist in tax avoidance. . . it does not seem right that the Office of Public Works should enter into arrangements involving the avoidance of tax. I am choosing my words. It was not illegal or improper, but it was, at least, peculiar. Many citizens would find it a little strange."
It would be only the most easy-going of taxpayers who would content themselves with the words "peculiar" and "strange" to describe this saga. But until the Mahon tribunal fully investigates, perhaps they will have to do.