Businessman Tom Gilmartin has told the tribunal that at one point during his attempts to put a deal together at Quarryvale, he would have shot Liam Lawlor if he had had a gun.
Mr Gilmartin told counsel for the tribunal, Pat Quinn SC, that he was at a lunch meeting with his property adviser Richard Foreman and potential investors for the Quarryvale project, in September 1990, in Finnstown House, Lucan, when they were interrupted by Liam Lawlor.
He said the door burst open and Mr Lawlor ran in sweating and pulled up a chair at their table.
He spoke to the prospective investors, who were from Edinburgh, and then congratulated them on their bravery for agreeing to invest in the area, which he described as "mad dog country" and "bandit country".
"Quite frankly, if I had a gun that day, I would have blown his head off," Mr Gilmartin said. "But I had to just grin and bear it."
He said Mr Lawlor introduced himself as a representative of the government and afterwards "walked off as brazen as a dog".
Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal that he believed his bank, Allied Irish Bank, had been instrumental in ensuring that Mr Lawlor attended the meeting.
He said he had an appointment with his bank that same afternoon but was running late and so phoned them to explain that he could not attend.
He said he told the bank where he was having the lunch meeting and it was his belief that they contacted rival property developer, Owen O'Callaghan, who sent Mr Lawlor to "scuttle" the deal.
He said that though he hadn't met those investors since, Mr Foreman knew them and he was quite confident that he could "get them as witnesses to the conversation". The tribunal heard that Mr Gilmartin had reached an agreement in 1988 with Mr O'Callaghan over lands at Neilstown, bought by Mr O'Callaghan from the council for £500,000.
The deal was that if Mr O'Callaghan agreed not to develop the lands in competition with Quarryvale, Mr Gilmartin would make three staged payments to him, one of £800,000 and two of £1.35 million each.
The timing of the payments is disputed. There was also a clause in the deal which meant that if Quarryvale was not developed, Mr O'Callaghan would get the Neilstown land back. Mr Gilmartin claimed he was being held to ransom by Mr O'Callaghan.
Evidence was produced of contacts between then minister for the environment, Pádraig Flynn, Mr O'Callaghan and Mr Gilmartin.
Mr Quinn read a letter into the record from Mr O'Callaghan to Mr Flynn on February 5th, 1990, saying that his agreement with Mr Gilmartin had expired the previous October and so he had applied for planning permission to develop Neilstown.
"I am prepared to reinstate the agreement and withdraw the present planning application to Dublin County Council, provided Tom Gilmartin completes his side of the agreement this week," the letter said.
Mr Gilmartin described the letter as "a stroke" and Mr O'Callaghan's planning application as "another stroke", designed to force him to make a deal or give Mr O'Callaghan a share in the Quarryvale project.
Mr Gilmartin outlined how he had high hopes that the government would grant "designated area status" to Quarryvale, so that it would be more attractive to investors.
Areas with designated status had a 100 per cent capital tax allowance, a double rent allowance, a rate-free holiday and far fewer planning restrictions, the tribunal heard.
