AIB earned £1.5m from share in Quarryvale

AIB BANK earned £1.5 million from its share in the Quarryvale development, a senior banker told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.

Michael O'Farrell, former senior manager at AIB corporate bank in Ballsbridge, also said the bank viewed Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan as having "exceptional abilities" and as being probably the "most respected and capable shopping centre developer in Ireland".

AIB became involved in the Quarryvale project, now the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, after Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin ran into financial difficulty repaying an £8.5 million loan given to him in 1990.

The bank took a 20 per cent share in the development, Mr O'Callaghan took a 40 per cent share and the remainder was retained by Mr Gilmartin.

Mr Gilmartin exited the project in 1996 and the bank was bought out in 1998 for £1.5 million, Mr O'Farrell said.

Mr O'Farrell, who dealt with the Quarryvale project from September 1992, said the bank's main role in the project was to let Mr O'Callaghan "get on with the job of achieving rezoning whilst seeking to minimise the drawings from the bank".

Counsel for the tribunal, Pat Quinn SC, said an AIB document written in August 1992 said "due to the exceptional abilities and commitment of Owen O'Cal-laghan, who has worked tirelessly to secure the support of politicians . . . it is possible that retail zoning will be retained". It also described Mr O'Callaghan as "probably the most respected and capable shopping centre developer in Ireland".

Mr Quinn said the only prospect of success for the project, then in debt to the bank for £14 million, was if the retail zoning was successful.

Mr O'Farrell agreed it was unlikely the bank would get its money back if the land was not zoned retail.

The tribunal heard that £280,000 was spent to secure the success of a crucial vote on the Quarryvale rezoning in December 1992.

Some £100,000 was initially made available by the bank and in early December 1992, two weeks before the vote at Dublin County Council, the bank agreed to release a further £30,000. Mr O'Callaghan also told the bank he had spent £150,000 to secure the rezoning of Quarryvale.

Mr Quinn asked Mr O'Farrell if he ever queried payments to lobbyist Frank Dunlop.

Mr O'Farrell said fees to Mr Dunlop were seen as "legitimate expenses" and would not have received "really granular examination". "There was never, ever any mention of cash payments."

Mr O'Farrell also told the tribunal that the bank was not interested in financing the Neils-town Stadium project, then being mooted by Mr O'Callaghan. But he did sign off on an invoice for £70,000 from Mr Dunlop, for work related to the stadium.

Former Fine Gael councillor Mary Elliot did not tell a Fine Gael inquiry that she had attended a dinner with Mr O'Callaghan at Le Coq Hardi, a week before the December 1992 vote on Quarryvale. The dinner, on December 8th, included Mr Dunlop, Mr O'Callaghan and the "Fine Gael ladies"; Ms Elliot, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, then a councillor, and councillors Therese Ridge and Anne Devitt.

Mr Dunlop's diary also recorded two other dinners Ms Elliot attended with Mr O'Callaghan, counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC said.

However, Ms Elliot did not mention Mr O'Callaghan's presence at any dinners to a Fine Gael inquiry into planning corruption, Ms Dillon said. "My memory isn't the best," Ms Elliot said.