Moriarty tribunal: A former senior civil servant has told the Moriarty tribunal that no political pressure had been brought to bear on the process which saw 145 acres of State lands near Blessington in Co Wicklow sold to the Roadstone company in 1991 without going to public tender.
Seán Fitzgerald, former assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, said that if there had been any political interference he would have left "a trail of evidence" to that effect.
The tribunal is investigating the sale of Glen Ding woodlands, which contains sand and gravel deposits, to determine if there had been any role played in the transaction by Des Traynor or former Taoiseach Charles Haughey. At the time of the sale process Mr Traynor, the financial adviser to Mr Haughey, was chairman of CRH, the holding company of Roadstone.
Mr Fitzgerald said yesterday that he had been unaware of a commitment given in the Dáil by the former minister Ray Burke that the lands would be sold through a tender process.
Another former minister Michael Smith has told the tribunal that he had also informed some interested parties that there would have to be a tender process for the lands.
Mr Fitzgerald said the failure to deal with the commitment for a tender process was due to changes in the department's personnel. He said he entered the sale process with an open mind as to who bought the lands.
He said the department's position on the process began to swing around after external advisers indicated that securing planning permission could be problematical and that Roadstone, as an adjoining occupier, stood a better chance than a stand-alone operator.
He believed that it was the right idea to target initially Roadstone "to see where we go" and if that did not yield a satisfactory result to consider going back to the tender process. "This was not intended as favour to Roadstone. It was intended as a process to get more money out of them for the public purse," he said.
Mr Fitzgerald said a second bidder, Brendan Johnston, had been treated fairly by the department. He said that if Mr Johnston had offered a higher price he would have secured the property.
Roadstone ultimately offered €1.25 million for the lands while Mr Johnston's bid was €800,000.
Mr Fitzgerald said he had discussed the sale on a couple of occasions with the then minister Robert Molloy and that there had been no political pressure placed on him. He said he had no reason to believe that Mr Haughey had been aware of the transaction.
