Mahon TribunalMr Tom Gilmartin has accused Fianna Fáil of demanding money before the party would look at corruption within its own party. The Sligo-born property developer said he had made a £50,000 donation to Fianna Fáil in the hope the party would "clean up what was going on in Dublin".
He said this was done at the suggestion of senior members of the party, including a number of cabinet ministers, after he complained that his plans for a major shopping centre and business park development were being thwarted by Mr Liam Lawlor and other individuals. He said he wanted to created "a level playing field" for his proposed development.
Referring to the money demand, Mr Gilmartin said: "In my opinion that itself was a most sickening suggestion, that the party had to be paid to clean up the crooks and gangsters who were demanding money willy-nilly from investors."
M Gilmartin said he gave the £50,000 cheque to the then minister for the environment, Mr Pádraig Flynn, who was one of the people who made the suggestion to him.
After he made the donation, Mr Gilmartin claims nothing happened. "In fact from that time on they turned a deaf ear to what I was saying."
Yesterday was Mr Gilmartin's 20th day in the witness box, and his eighth being cross-examined by Mr Lawlor, whom the judges ordered to complete his cross-examination just before 6 p.m.
It followed a number of warnings from the judges yesterday to Mr Lawlor on the length of time he was taking to complete his cross-examination, specifically in relation to the repetition of issues and evidence he had already covered.
Yesterday afternoon the tribunal also heard of a statement in which a former Fianna Fáil councillor claimed that Mr Gilmartin had "aggressively" pursued him with numerous telephone calls to his home and became threatening and abusive towards him during a meeting.
Mr Gilmartin had previously claimed that the same politician, Mr Finbarr Hanrahan, had sought a bribe of £100,000 to support his west Dublin development at a meeting in Buswells Hotel on December 28th, 1988.
In his statement, which was read out by Mr Lawlor, Mr Hanrahan described the claim as "an outrageous lie", and that he was in Kerry on holidays at the time of the alleged meeting. He said he did meet Mr Gilmartin at Buswells Hotel for a short period following a number of demanding phone calls. He told him his planned scheme for the Quarryvale site was "far fetched". Mr Gilmartin then "turned threatening and abusive".
Yesterday Mr Gilmartin said Mr Hanrahan's statement was "a total fabrication, a pack of lies". He added: "I never in my life threatened anybody." He said he phoned Mr Hanrahan's house "only once, on the instructions of Mr Lawlor".
Yesterday morning, Mr Lawlor also claimed that a former solicitor of Mr Gilmartin's, Mr Noel Smyth, gave him details of a confidential statement given to the solicitor by Mr Gilmartin.
Mr Lawlor was seeking the informal statement which the tribunal has previously denied access to as it was provided on the basis of confidentiality. This ruling is now the subject of a High Court challenge by the developer, Mr Owen O'Callaghan. Mr Gilmartin said the informal statement was "based on a casual conversation with Noel Smyth, who was my solicitor at the time", and was covered by solicitor-client confidentiality.
Judge Mahon said the matter was not one for the tribunal and should be taken up directly with Mr Smyth.