Mahon tribunal:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was behind an attempt to silence a junior minister by threatening to release a photograph of him with rent boys, the tribunal heard yesterday.
The junior minister was also told that accusations that he committed a sexual offence would be made known, the tribunal heard.
Colm Ó hOisín SC, counsel for Mr Ahern, read into evidence information passed on to the tribunal by Tom Gilmartin in January 2000.
Mr Gilmartin had told tribunal counsel that an anonymous caller told him about an attempt to prevent a junior minister from raising concerns about tax designation. Although the names of the individuals involved were passed on to the tribunal by Mr Gilmartin in 2000, except for Mr Ahern's, they were not read into the record yesterday.
Mr Gilmartin had said that shortly after the junior minister (Z) was reported in the media concerning his misgivings about granting tax designations, Bertie Ahern sent a delegation to him comprising two ministers.
"They produced photographs of him in the Phoenix Park with rent boys. They also mentioned a case where Z was supposed to have made an indecent approach to a young teenager and where it is said there was a huge row with the boy's parents. They threatened to sue but ultimately did nothing because of fear of publicity," he had said.
Mr Gilmartin had said the ministers told the junior minister that "if he did not keep his effing mouth shut, they would release this material to the media".
Mr Ó hOisín described the allegations as outrageous. "There is not a scintilla of evidence to support this outrageous allegation which you have made against four different people," he said.
Mr Gilmartin said he didn't know whether the allegation was true or false. Mr Ó hOisín described Mr Gilmartin as a conduit for malicious gossip and said that if he had an ounce of decency, he would realise it was wrong to make an allegation like that without evidence. Mr Gilmartin said his credibility was intact and he "was not a bit sorry" for passing on the allegation.
"If it is proved to me if that it's utterly untrue, then I would probably have a conscience about passing it on in the first place," he said.
In earlier evidence, Mr Gilmartin denied ever telling a journalist that the evidence he would give on planning corruption to the tribunal would "explode at the heart of government".
His attention was drawn to articles written in 1999 in which he was directly quoted, though he had been told not to talk to journalists by tribunal counsel. Mr Gilmartin said he believed in democracy and that when things were written and said about him, he was entitled to respond.
