Ahern 'behind Burke pay-off'

Mahon tribunal:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was behind a plan to give Ray Burke a "golden handshake" of up to £750,000, the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday.

Developer Tom Gilmartin was cross-questioned on his evidence to the planning tribunal about a plan to persuade Mr Burke to resign from government.

Mr Gilmartin had said that Mr Burke was to be paid between £500,000 and £750,000 to resign his position as minister for foreign affairs in 1997 and "forestall" the establishment of the planning tribunal.

He had said the deal was arranged in the offices of solicitor Séamus Maguire and involved a consortium of developers, including JMSE and Michael Bailey. Bertie Ahern came up with the "buy-off", Dermot Ahern was the intermediary and Mary Harney was aware of the deal, he said. He said that Mr Maguire had given him the information.

Paul Sreenan, counsel for developer Owen O'Callaghan, pointed out that Mr Maguire had said he had absolutely no knowledge of the matter. He said this was the first incidence of corruption that Mr Gilmartin had ever brought to the tribunal, before he made any allegations against Mr O'Callaghan. And he asked why some details of the story emerged only at a later stage.

"It's just detail," Mr Gilmartin said. "I couldn't care less if Mr Burke stood on his head in the middle of Blanchardstown."

Mr Sreenan also quizzed Mr Gilmartin on his story of a taxi ride with Mr O'Callaghan in which he was shown a £10,000 cheque for councillor Colm McGrath.

Mr Gilmartin had claimed that he was offered a lift to Dublin airport by Mr O'Callaghan after a bank meeting in Dublin in 1992. He said that on the way to the airport, Mr O'Callaghan showed him a cheque or bank draft made out to Mr McGrath and was "bragging about it".

He said that Mr O'Callaghan rubbed his nose in it and "it stuck in his craw".

Mr Sreenan said that Mr O'Callaghan would deny the event ever took place and said Mr Gilmartin had given varying versions of the story to the tribunal over the years.

He accused Mr Gilmartin of taking a figure he had found in the Barkhill accounts, deducing it was a payment to Mr McGrath and embellishing the story.

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon intervened in the cross-examination and pointed out that Mr O'Callaghan had acknowledged that he made political contributions to Mr McGrath of £30,000 or £40,000.

"The message goes forth that all of Mr Gilmartin's story can't be correct for a variety of reasons," he said.

"There could be an element of truth in Mr Gilmartin's version of events . . . because there were payments."

Yesterday afternoon, former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop told the tribunal he had no idea what Comex Trading Corporation was, despite the fact that it appeared in an audit of his company, Frank Dunlop and Associates.

The tribunal heard that sums of either stg£79,850 in one year or up to £150,000 over two years appeared to have been paid into Frank Dunlop and Associates by Comex. Tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon SC also pointed out that a £5,000 cheque given to the late Liam Lawlor by Mr Dunlop was made out to Comex and ended up in the account of Mr Lawlor's son, Niall Lawlor.

She asked Mr Dunlop how his company could appear to have been in receipt of the money from Comex and who Comex was. He said he had no idea.