The builder Mr Tom Brennan yesterday rejected suggestions from counsel for the Flood tribunal that he was involved in lies and perjury during a High Court case in 1985.
The tribunal is investigating payments of £15,000 and £60,000 to the former Fianna Fail minister, Mr Ray Burke, from Canio, an offshore company linked with the builder and his business partner, Mr Joe McGowan.
In 1985 Allied Irish Finance sued Mr George Russell, a solicitor for Brennan and McGowan, and the two builders, over deeds and a land sale. Mr Russell also initiated legal proceedings against the builders.
In an affidavit, Mr Russell said that, on the instructions of Brennan and McGowan, he gave an undertaking to hold the title deeds of lands in Sandyford, Co Dublin, owned by Canio as security for a loan taken out by a Brennan and McGowan company.
"Your subsequent denial of this in the court proceedings was a lie and a perjury," Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal said.
"No, that's not true," Mr Brennan said. Mr McGowan had sworn an affidavit denying an interest in Canio, or its parent company, Ardcarn. Mr McGowan later filed a second affidavit acknowledging his interests in the companies.
Mr Brennan said he had refused to sign the first affidavit when he read it.
At the end of yesterday's proceedings, Mr Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Brennan, asked Mr Hanratty if he stood by his suggestion that Mr Brennan was involved in lies and perjury. Mr Hanratty said he would not withdraw the statement. Whether the suggestion was true or not was a matter for Mr Justice Flood, he said.
Mr Brennan also rejected claims by the tribunal's legal team that he had tried to "stonewall" his solicitor and the tribunal.
In the minutes of a meeting between a solicitor, Mr John Walsh, and the two builders in February of this year, Mr Walsh was recorded as saying he was trying to find out more about a company called Kalabraki, and would arrange a search of the UK companies register. The tribunal has already heard that Kalabraki was a Jersey-based company owned by Mr Brennan.
Mr Hanratty asked why Mr Brennan didn't tell his solicitor he was "barking up the wrong tree". "Isn't it very obvious, Mr Brennan, that you and Mr McGowan decided to stonewall?" Mr Hanratty said.
"That's not fair," Mr Brennan said. "I'm here now three weeks and I've tried as far as I can, possibly, to give you all the information."
"You haven't, in the entire three weeks, told the tribunal anything it didn't already know," Mr Hanratty said.
