As of November 1997, only 25 of the 720 acres of Murphy lands bought by Mr Michael Bailey had been developed, the developer told the tribunal. Of the balance, 50 had been rezoned with no planning permission applied for and the rest were fallow.
During questioning by Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, Mr Bailey said he would like to ask the chairman to allow him to describe the lands in a summary of the factual position as they were in December 1989 and as they were in November 1997 ". . . as I believe it has an unbelievable weight to carry on the future and the working of this tribunal for the simple reason that, of the total 720 acres that we purchased from Lagos Holdings and Helen dale Ltd, that in actual fact, as of November 1997, only 25 acres of this land has been built on and worked on and the balance of the land is sitting fallow in the bright lights of north Co Dublin, to everybody's astonishment.
"I've been sitting here listening to 400 acres being rezoned, 500 rezoned, tower blocks being build on it," he said.
Mr O'Neill interrupted him and said he should answer the questions put to him and they were dealing with Mr James Gogarty's evidence.
Mr Bailey said he wanted to put the factual position.
Mr O'Neill had been asking him about the way he dealt with press queries when stories began to appear in the newspapers. Counsel said the evidence of journalist Mr Frank Connolly was that when he initially contacted Mr Bailey, he (Connolly) subsequently spoke to Mr P.J. Mara and was under the impression Mr Mara was answering questions on behalf of Mr Bailey.
Mr Bailey said he never employed Mr Mara. He engaged Mr Pat Heneghan to deal with press queries about the time the tribunal was starting.
Mr Heneghan's advice was that if the press were asking Mr Bailey for information, they should be referred to him.
He had not given Mr Heneghan a briefing on events but if Mr Heneghan was asked a question, he would come back and ask Mr Bailey on a question-by-question basis.
Mr O'Neill asked if there was any reason why Mr Bailey had not given Mr Heneghan the full picture so that he could deal with the press the best he could.
Mr Bailey replied that when he first engaged Mr Heneghan, he gave him a broad outline of the dealings with the Murphy organisation and, in particular, the lands referred to in the terms of reference.
He explained about the position and the facts of the lands.
It was at this point that Mr Bailey asked if he could make his statement regarding the lands.
Later, Mr O'Neill asked if he then employed solicitors Smith Foy and Company.
Mr Bailey said Smith Foy had been his solicitors for the past 25 years.
When asked if he knew about correspondence concerning Mr Burke's solicitors, Mr Bailey replied: "I'm a bricklayer, I'm not a legal eagle, if you don't mind me saying. Everything that comes, I don't even look at letters that have got to do with legal things, I leave it all."
He added that he left everything to Mr Kevin Smith. "There's many letters that if he even spoke to me about them I'd be telling him to get on and deal with them himself and don't be bothering me."