A mere 70 houses have been built on the 700 or so acres of north Dublin lands the Flood tribunal was set up to investigate, according to the developer who bought the lands, Mr Michael Bailey.
Mr Bailey, the man who introduced the Murphy Group executive, Mr James Gogarty, to the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke, began his evidence yesterday determined to show the chairman that little had happened to the lands in the 10 years since he bought them.
Only 25 acres had been rezoned and developed, and another 50 acres had been rezoned but no planning permission had been obtained. The balance, Mr Bailey told Mr Justice Flood, was still "sitting fallow in the bright lights of north Co Dublin".
A central plank of the Bailey argument in this tribunal is that nothing untoward took place in relation to the north Dublin lands because no subsequent gains, in the form of rezoning or planning permissions, were obtained.
What this explanation fails to account for is the possible intent of the parties in 1989, when the Murphy Group sold the lands to Mr Bailey for £2.3 million, and for subsequent events which could have blown plans off course.
Months of evidence have so far failed to unlock the mysteries of these lands. Mr Bailey yesterday accepted that he offered to sell back to the Murphys a half-share in the lands, purchased only months previously, for £8 million. As Mr Gogarty asked in his evidence, how could the lands have zoomed in value from £2.3 million to £16 million in such a short space of time?
Mr Bailey, his broad builder's shoulders fully occupying the witness-stand, seems set to spend most of this week giving evidence.
Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, went through Mr Gogarty's affidavit in detail, and Mr Bailey denied virtually all the allegations about him. They were "a total fabrication", "I couldn't believe that someone could fabricate such lies." He even wrote the word "LI-E-S" in big writing in the margin of the affidavit when he first read it.
"If anyone is good at telling tales, he's the best," Mr Bailey remarked of Mr Gogarty.
In his statement, Mr Bailey denies ever having known Mr Joseph Murphy snr or having worked in London.
However, in evidence, he admitted he had at least one company which operated in Britain around the late 1980s, and that he regularly travelled to London on business.
Mr Bailey relied on his architect and solicitor to deal with all the correspondence and technical matters, while he got on with building and bargaining over sites.
Thus his solicitors wrote the letter, signed by him on June 8th, 1989, in which he promised to procure planning permission on the Murphy lands. His decision not to attend for interview at the tribunal, or to furnish a sworn affidavit, was also taken on legal advice. "I'm a bricklayer, not a legal eagle," he remarked.
Before Mr Bailey ever bought the north Dublin lands from Murphys, he purchased a smaller plot of land, at Forest Road in Swords, from the company. This is where the former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond, enters the story.
Mr Bailey's evidence is that he was driving through the Phoenix Park some time in 1987 when he came across Mr Pat Downey, who owned land adjoining his property in Mulhuddart. The two men chatted for a while, and then Mr Redmond came along. Mr Downey, who was a neighbour of Mr Redmond's in Castleknock, introduced him to Mr Bailey.
In the course of general chat, Mr Bailey said he asked Mr Redmond to let him know if he knew of any building land for sale.
Under questioning, Mr Bailey appeared to waver on some of the details of the meeting. In addition, Mr Redmond says it happened in 1988, not 1987. Mr Downey has since died.
In early 1988 Mr Redmond contacted Mr Bailey to tell him that Mr Gogarty was selling the Forest Road land, the witness said. Mr Redmond arranged a meeting between the three men in the Clontarf Castle hotel.
Mr O'Neill asked the witness to explain why Mr Redmond had done all this for him, when they had met only once before.
Mr Bailey said he could not explain it. "Lots of people do things for you in life and you never see them again."
In other matters, it emerged that the tribunal wants to have its own doctor examine Mr Murphy snr before it agrees to move to Jersey to take evidence from Mr Murphy near his home.