A builder paid £2,000 to a financial consultant and an engineer who had asked him for the money "for Bertie" to "keep planning and zoning sweet", the High Court heard yesterday.
The claim was made by the builder, Mr James Robert Farrell Kells, who with his company, Farrell Homes (Kells) Development Ltd, are being sued by the consultant, Mr Roderick Brennan, Ashbourne, Co Meath, and an engineer, Mr Ronald Bergin, Dundrum, Co Dublin.
They are claiming damages for financial and planning services they provided to the defendants between 1991 and 1997 and are also seeking specific performance of agreements allegedly made.
When it was put to Mr Bergin during cross-examination last week that Mr Farrell would claim he paid £2,000 to Mr Brennan and that it was represented it would go to Mr Bertie Ahern's election fund, Mr Bergin described it as "an outrageous suggestion".
In court yesterday Mr Farrell said he first met Mr Brennan towards the end of 1991 and told the consultant he had planning permission for two houses at Headfort Place, Kells, but that it had run out.
He said he also told Mr Brennan he had problems with finance at the time and that he had sites at Lloyd, Kells, for which he had planning permission for houses, but that it had also run out.
Mr Brennan said he knew the right people and knew politicians and would have no problem getting him permission, Mr Farrell said. He also claimed Mr Brennan had said he knew an engineer, Mr Bergin, who knew the county manager and planning officials.
Mr Farrell said when Mr Brennan and Mr Bergin applied for planning permission for the lands at Lloyd, he agreed to give them two of the 15 houses for which permission was being sought. Each house had a value of around £72,000 at the time.
At first Mr Brennan and Mr Bergin said they were getting on well with the project. But later things backfired when they could not get permission from an adjoining factory manager for sewerage to go through the factory's lands.
Mr Brennan was in bad humour and said he would bring the politicians on to the factory manager and get the taxman "down on top of him" also, Mr Farrell said. Mr Brennan and Mr Bergin never got the houses because they never got the planning permission, he added.
Mr Farrell said that after selling a small portion of lands which he jointly owned at Balreask he gave £2,000 each in cash to Mr Brennan and Mr Bergin. He said they asked him for £2,000 "for Bertie" to "keep planning and zoning sweet" and he paid this in cash.
Earlier, Mr Farrell said Mr Brennan told him in late 1991 that he "knew the right people and knew politicians" and would have no problem getting back the expired planning permission.
Mr Farrell, in his evidence, said moves were made in 1992 in respect of a revised application for planning permission for the Lloyd site. He had been refused planning permission and the plaintiffs said they would apply again.
Around that time, he himself attended a meeting with Ms Mary Wallace, a Co Meath TD and councillor, the builder said.
Mr Farrell said Mr Brennan and Mr Bergin went to a meeting with Mr Ahern and they wrote to Dr Michael Woods and other TDs. They also visited Meath councillors to see if they could push through planning permission.
The plaintiffs had attended a meeting of Meath County Council and had asked him to attend a social function in Dublin for Mr Woods, which he did.
The hearing continues today.