Business partner contradicts Gilmartin

MAHON TRIBUNAL: A former business partner of Mr Tom Gilmartin has contradicted the property developer's version of how Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor got involved in a £100 million shopping centre project they were developing in Dublin.

Mr Ted Dadley, chairman of the retail subsidiary of Arlington Securities, has told the tribunal that it was Mr Gilmartin who brought Mr Lawlor on board the Bachelor's Walk project in the late 1980s.

However, Mr Gilmartin yesterday repeated his assertion that Mr Dadley and his fellow executives in Arlington had made the decision to engage Mr Lawlor as a consultant. Mr Dadley said he always found Mr Gilmartin to be a "straightforward and honourable" man in their dealings. The Irishman was responsible for assembling the site while Arlington was providing the financial backing for the project.

He said Mr Gilmartin suggested they needed "PR prowess" and should take on Mr Lawlor because he was "useful to keeping the government on his side and keeping this major project focused on a continuous basis as a major priority".

Mr Gilmartin said this was not correct. The suggestion to employ Mr Lawlor had not come from him; the reverse was the case. Mr Dadley said he went along with this proposal. Bachelor's Walk was the largest retail development Arlington had been involved in. Since Ireland was "something of a foreign land" for an English company it was necessary to rely on Mr Gilmartin "as to who was vital and who was not in bringing the project to fruition".

He told Mr Gilmartin that it was his job as a 20 per cent shareholder to use Mr Lawlor's services as he considered appropriate. Mr Gilmartin said this was not accurate.

Both Arlington and Mr Gilmartin agree that Mr Lawlor asked for a retainer. A fee of £3,500 was approved by the Arlington board and ultimately paid for 10 months. The money was paid to Mr Gilmartin and Mr Gilmartin dealt with Mr Lawlor accordingly, according to Mr Dadley's statement.

Mr Dadley said he relied on Mr Gilmartin completely. He saw Mr Lawlor as "someone who could tell him who he could go to when there were difficulties, rather than someone who was actually going to sort them out himself".

Mr Lawlor introduced him to Mr Pádraig Flynn, whom he heard support the project whole-heartedly.