Air Corps chief says he flew Reynolds to Bahamas

The head of the Air Corps told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that former taoiseach Albert Reynolds made an extra stop in the Bahamas after a fundraising visit to the US in 1994.

Brig Gen Ralph James said Mr Reynolds and a number of guests were flown to New York on March 12th, 1994. They also visited Chicago and Washington before flying to Nassau, in the Bahamas. The flights were all scheduled before the aircraft left Dublin, the tribunal was told.

However, on March 21st, the plane made an unscheduled flight from Nassau to Freeport, another of the Grand Bahamas. Brig Gen James said the extra flight was made on the request of Mr Reynolds through his liaison contact on the flight. There was a six-hour stopover in Freeport before the flight continued home to Dublin.

Developer Tom Gilmartin had told the tribunal that relations in America and other sources told him that Mr Reynolds raised more than $1 million on a trip to America after the "euphoria of the Northern Ireland settlement".

He visited cities including Chicago, Boston and New York, but only brought back $70,000 to Fianna Fáil, Mr Gilmartin had said.

"Someone said they must have fallen off the plane on the way over and drifted down to the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands," Mr Gilmartin had said.

Counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon SC asked Brig Gen James if Air Corp documents recorded the purpose of the trip to Freeport. He said they did not.

He also outlined a helicopter trip taken by Mr Reynolds to Cork on March 11th, 1994.

Mr Gilmartin had told the tribunal that Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan said Mr Reynolds attended a dinner in Cork and was given £150,000 in a bedroom at 3am. He was "knackered", Mr Gilmartin had said, and needed to get a helicopter back to Dublin so that he could catch a flight to the US.

The tribunal had also heard evidence that a private dinner did occur in Cork and Mr O'Callaghan had attended it, but its purpose was to fundraise for Fianna Fáil.

Brig Gen James said the Dauphin helicopter collected Mr Reynolds and a J Kennedy from Clonskeagh, Dublin, at 5pm. The flight landed in Cork at 6.15pm and collected Mr Reynolds and his guest again at 12.30am, arriving back in Dublin at 1.30am.