Property developer Mr Tom Gilmartin has told the Mahon tribunal he received death threats in 1998 or 1999. He also said he received death threats as recently as last year, the inquiry heard this afternoon.
The threats came from people with Irish accents and were made by phone to his home in Luton "on three or four occasions", the Sligo-born property developer told the tribunal.
The first calls were made in 1998 at a time when Mr Gilmartin was refusing to co-operate with the tribunal, then chaired by Mr Justice Flood.
Mr Gilmartin said: "I was told if I turned up in Dublin . . . for me to remember what happened to Veronica Guerin. That I would know what was waiting for me".
His son answered the phone the second time a threat was made and was told that if Mr Gilmartin went to the tribunal "he shouldn't expect him back".
The third threat was received, and on that occasion Mr Gilmartin said: "You remember one thing: You'll have to make a good job of me".
He said a friend of his in Crosshaven, Co Cork, had also received a call warning that Mr Glimartin should not testify to the tribunal. The friend was told: "someone should watch over me".
The tribunal had been told of these threats, Mr Gilmartin said, but that he had not reported it to local police.
Tom Gilmartin
Mr Gilmartin added that his wife suffered from stress as a result of threats he had received from people purporting to be from the IRA. Two men had called to his house demanding money for the republican fund-raising group NORAID. The men said that because he was an Irish builder he "had better cough up".
Mr Gilmartin told the men: "A penny of my money will never buy a bullet to kill anyone".
The matter had caused his wife considerable stress and while Mr Gilmartin did not believe the men really were from the IRA, the incident had prevented him from reporting the tribunal-related death threats.
The threats were made known to the-then environment minister, Mr Pádraig Flynn, in the context of a previous complaint Mr Gilmartin had made about demands for money he had received from politicians, the tribunal heard.
Mr Flynn had contacted gardaí regarding the planning issues and an investigation had begun in February 1989.
Mr Gilmartin's revelation emerged during questioning by counsel for tribunal, Mr John Gallagher SC. Yesterday, Mr Gilmartin, repeated his claims that after a meeting with members of the Cabinet in 1989 he was confronted by an unidentified man in Leinster House. This man demanded £5 million be deposited in an Isle-of-Man bank account or Mr Gilmartin's property plans for Dublin would fail, the tribunal was told.
When Mr Gilmartin refused and told this man Fianna Fáil made the "Mafia look like monks"; the man replied that he could "end up in the Liffey for that statement".
Earlier, Mr Gilmartin described the man who had threatened him after the alleged meeting. He said he did not know him and had never seen his likeness subsequently "but if I was given a photo-fit artist I could probably paint a picture of him".
He described a relatively short, well-spoken and well-dressed man with an oval face and short, cropped, and greying hair.
Mr Gilmartin had been given a account number and sort code on a slip of paper that he no longer possesses, the tribunal heard.
A bank official's name was given to him by the unidentified man who Mr Gilmartin had previously done business with on a separate matter. He submitted the official's name in writing to the tribunal.