Broadcaster Eamon Dunphy said yesterday that Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan told him Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had been "taken care of" to ensure a development in Athlone was given tax designation. Fiona Gartlandreports.
Mr Dunphy outlined the details of conversations he had with Mr O'Callaghan in the late 1990s when both men were involved in a project to bring Wimbledon Football Club to a proposed new stadium in west Dublin.
He said Mr O'Callaghan told him Mr Ahern could not be relied on to do a deal. He had been told that when Mr Ahern was minister for finance, he had said he would give tax designation to a shopping centre development at Golden Island, but had not followed through on the deal, though he had been "looked after" and been "taken care of".
"The inference I drew was that Mr Ahern had been induced improperly by Mr O'Callaghan to grant tax designation to this project and had failed to deliver," Mr Dunphy said.
He said a sardonic Mr O'Callaghan told him he had to contact then taoiseach Albert Reynolds who "put a gun to Mr Ahern's head" at 11.45pm on the night before the government fell in December 1994, to force him to grant the designation.
Counsel for the tribunal, Des O'Neill SC, asked Mr Dunphy if he believed Mr O'Callaghan was telling him he had paid money to Mr Ahern.
Mr Dunphy said that he did believe so, but he pointed out that "money was not mentioned, as such".
"The impression that remained in my mind is that Mr Ahern had been given an inducement," he said. Mr Dunphy said that when allegations about corruption in the planning process began to be aired by Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin, who had been a partner in the Quarryvale project with Mr O'Callaghan, he asked Mr O'Callaghan about them.
Mr Dunphy said Mr O'Callaghan had replied that Mr Gilmartin was a "headcase". He told Mr Dunphy that he "wanted a clean hand" but had to deal with corrupt councillors to develop in Dublin because this was the only way you could get work done.
"He did not use the word corrupt," Mr Dunphy said.
Mr O'Neill asked him if he had any doubt about the conclusions he had drawn about his conversations with Mr O'Callaghan. He said he did not.
In February 2007, Mr Dunphy was called to private interview with the tribunal, Mr O'Neill said, after journalist Frank Connolly provided Mr Dunphy's name and phone number to the tribunal.
Mr Dunphy said he had told Mr Connolly about what Mr O'Callaghan had said. Mr Connolly had said the information could be relevant to the tribunal.
Mr O'Neill said the relevance of the information was obvious from the moment the tribunal was established. Mr Dunphy admitted that he had been "passive".
"My inclination would have been not to contact the tribunal," he said.
Mr O'Neill asked if his coming forward was an attempt to be of assistance to Mr Connolly or to bolster the evidence of others. Mr Dunphy denied the suggestion.
"I have no choices except to tell what I know, and I'm doing that to the best of my ability," he said.
Mr O'Neill questioned Mr Dunphy about a formal statement provided to the tribunal after his interview, in which he appeared to be more "circumspect" about his conversations with Mr O'Callaghan. He said Mr Dunphy had described Mr O'Callaghan as patient, businesslike and honest.
Mr Dunphy said he was "endeavouring to be much more precise" about his evidence.
Mr O'Neill noted that Mr O'Callaghan had denied he had ever paid money to Mr Ahern.