After a conversation with George Redmond, a property owner was armed with the knowledge of the price agreed between a valuer and rival developer for lands, Mr Tom Gilmartin, the tribunal was told.
The former assistant Dublin city and county manager was asked by Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, about a conversation he had with Mr John Corcoran, the property owner who was developing Blanchardstown town centre.
She asked if he discussed the sale of Dublin Corporation lands at Quarryvale in 1989.
Redmond said he told Mr Corcoran that Dublin Corporation was in the process of selling the 70 acres.
He told him what he knew. He said there had been a developer interested in the land and that Dublin Corporation had valued it at a figure of £40,000 per acre.
"He would have know what I understood the value to be but he wouldn't have known the conditions. It was public, they were telling me. There's no sin in that, you're asking me questions as if I'm sinning," Redmond said.
Ms Dillon said: "Therefore Mr Corcoran at the end of his conversation with you was armed with the knowledge of the price which had been agreed by a valuer with Mr Gilmartin and if he was going to tender or offer for the land he was in an advantageous position as he knew the price he had to beat."
Redmond said there was no secret about it.
Ms Dillon asked if after the conversation, Mr Corcoran made a planning application armed with the information Redmond gave him. He replied: "Yes."
Redmond agreed that the last thing he did before his retirement in April 1989 was to decide that the 11 acres of Dublin County Council lands at Quarryvale would not be disposed of then. He said the price had not been agreed.
Redmond said he had never taken to Mr Gilmartin. He was a man he kept at a distance but that did not mean that he was not treated fairly.