The Flood tribunal has heard conflicting evidence about the involvement of auctioneer Mr John Finnegan in a loan application by a company that channelled money to former minister Mr Ray Burke.
Mr Dominic Hussey SC, for Mr Finnegan, said his client had no "hand, act or part" in an application for a £525,000 loan by Canio Ltd, an offshore company which was developing lands in Sandyford, Co Dublin. Canio paid £75,000 to Mr Burke in 1984 and 1985.
Lombard and Ulster bank advanced the loan to the builders Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Joe McGowan and an English businessman, Mr Roger Wreford, in 1984. Canio was owned by Mr Brennan, Mr McGowan and Mr Finnegan.
However, Brennan and McGowan's accountant, Mr Hugh Owens, stated in a fax dated June 1984 that "Wreford's name has been substituted for that of Finnegan because Finnegan wants to remain silent". Mr Hussey said Mr Wreford was not acting for Mr Finnegan in this matter, and never had.
Mr Fergus Smith, the Lombard and Ulster manager who dealt with Brennan and McGowan's account, said the loan application was made in the name of Mr Brennan, Mr McGowan and Mr Wreford. It was never indicated that Mr Finnegan had a beneficial interest in the lands at Sandyford.
The bank was told that the land was zoned residential and planning permission was expected for 600 houses. Some 250 sites would be built immediately.
Mr Smith said he couldn't understand why Mr Wreford was being represented as having an interest in the land.
It subsequently emerged that another bank also had a charge on the Sandyford land and Lombard and Ulster took legal action to recover its loan. The dispute was eventually resolved in 1989 through a complex financial arrangement in which two other Brennan and McGowan-related companies took out a £900,000 loan from the bank and used most of this to repay the Canio debt.
Under this arrangement, the bank noted that "the beneficial owner of the bank's security is Mr James Kennedy and, while legal proceedings have commenced, indications are that a settlement will be reached in the near future". Mr Kennedy's lands were in Lucan, the witness told the tribunal.
Earlier, the tribunal heard that Land Registry documents in respect of Mr Burke's house in Swords were updated in 1994, some 20 years after the former politician acquired the plot from a company owned in part by Mr Brennan.
The effect of these changes was to add almost a quarter acre to his holdings. Mr Esmonde Reilly, the solicitor who carried out the original conveyance, said he was unaware until last month that a deed of rectification had been filed in 1994.
