Tom Gilmartin's allegations are old, but for the Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil party, they haven't gone away, writes Mark Brennock
It seems close to a political generation ago that the developer Mr Tom Gilmartin first emerged as a man with sensational allegations that politicians and others had demanded enormous sums of money from him if his ambitious plan to build Europe's biggest shopping centre at Quarryvale, west Dublin, were ever to be realised.
Ultimately Quarryvale was developed by Cork property developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan. Mr Gilmartin first made allegations of impropriety in the planning process to gardaí in 1989, but would not sign a statement. However in the late 1990s his allegations were back and were under the remit of the planning tribunal.
His allegations were arguably the most politically damaging - if true - of all those put before the tribunal.
He said he gave £50, 000 to the then minister for the environment, Mr Pádraig Flynn, in 1989. He gave an account of another meeting with the then Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, and a number of Ministers, including the current Taoiseach.
Outside that meeting, he said, he was approached by a man who suggested he send £5 million to an Isle of Man bank account.
More details of these allegations emerged yesterday. A fortnight ago the statements of witnesses relevant to Mr Gilmartin's allegations were circulated to up to 40 legal teams representing interested parties. Over the past five days these have begun to leak out to various newspapers and broadcasting organisations.
Mr Gilmartin has given an account of being asked for another £100,000 by former deputy Mr Liam Lawlor. Most of the Ministers said by Mr Gilmartin to have been at the meeting, including the Taoiseach Mr Ahern, have denied that such a meeting took place, or said they have no recollection of it.
However, Mrs Mary O'Rourke has indeed recalled such a meeting, although she cannot be certain as to the date.
Other statements suggest that Mr Flynn opposed calling in the Garda to investigate Mr Gilmartin's claims when he first made them in 1989.
The tribunal will spend a number of weeks hearing evidence about these various claims, which if true, would paint a picture of extraordinary corruption at the heart of the planning process and of a government led by Mr Haughey and including Mr Ray Burke and Mr Flynn among its members. The fact that it included Mr Ahern, and that Mr Gilmartin has placed him at a significant meeting concerning his plans, is what has aroused particular political interest, although there has been no allegation of any wrongdoing made against Mr Ahern.
Government sources say the Taoiseach will have no difficulty dealing with an allegation in yesterday's Sunday Independent that he has not handed over documents sought by the tribunal five years ago and which he told the Dáil he was giving them. Mr Ahern is likely to say that the documents sought were either handed over, or were not in his possession in the first place.
The Taoiseach is unlikely to accede to Opposition demands that tomorrow's Dáil business be suspended to allow him and Ms Beverley Cooper Flynn to make statements on the affair. Having stuck for five years to the mantra that he will deal with the Gilmartin allegations at the tribunal, Mr Ahern is likely to stick to this formulation for another month.
As for Ms Cooper Flynn, she now faces renewed questions over her continued membership of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, a body she has already found herself outside twice. The first occasion was when she resigned rather than support a Dáil motion censuring her father. The second was after she failed in a libel action against RTÉ which had said that as an employee of National Irish Bank she had facilitated tax evasion.
Now she finds herself accused of facilitating tax evasion again, this time by assisting her father to invest half of the money he received from Mr Gilmartin in offshore funds. As of last night the Fianna Fáil view was that they would tough it out until the tribunal hears all the evidence. But that position did not hold before in relation to Mr Burke, for example. And for Ms Cooper Flynn, a further departure from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party would surely put an end to her career within that organisation. It would surely be a case of three strikes and you're out.