Details of Ahern's alibi put to Gilmartin

Mahon Tribunal: Further details have emerged of the Taoiseach's alibi which, according to his lawyers, shows he could not have been present at a meeting Mr Tom Gilmartin claims he attended with Mr Ahern and other Government ministers in Leinster House in 1989.

Lawyers for Mr Ahern told the tribunal yesterday that their client was attending a function in Glasnevin at the time Mr Gilmartin says he was at the claimed meeting in Leinster House in February 1989.

In angry exchanges, Mr Gilmartin stood by his account of the meeting and claimed that Mr Ahern seemed to be "invisible".

He accused "Mr Ahern and his ilk" of telling "a pack of lies" about him and trying to "blacken" his name. However, Mr Conor Maguire SC, for the Taoiseach, called into question a number of details of Mr Gilmartin's account of the meeting and said his evidence could not be relied upon.

Mr Maguire said Mr Ahern presented certificates to students on a NIFAST (National Industrial Fire and Safety Centre) safety course in Glasnevin at 5.30 p.m. on February 1st, 1989. Mr Gilmartin's diary records the Leinster House meeting taking place at this time and date.

Some 30 to 40 people were present at the function, Mr Maguire said. Mr Ahern spoke and stayed around for refreshments after the ceremony. If this was correct, and it was confirmed by entries in Mr Ahern's diaries, it meant that Mr Gilmartin's diary was incorrect.

Suggesting that this was not a great distance from Leinster House, Mr Gilmartin said Glasnevin "wasn't exactly Hong Kong". His belief was that the Dáil meeting took place on February 1st, but he wasn't entirely certain. It happened on either February 1st or 2nd. The fact was that the meeting had taken place. "You can nitpick from here to doomsday, but you're not going to change that," he told counsel.

Mr Gilmartin said he didn't lie and would never perjure himself. Mrs Mary O'Rourke, a "pillar of the Fianna Fáil party," had said there was a meeting. Was counsel saying she was lying and perjuring herself?

Judge Alan Mahon said the tribunal would have to decide two issues: first, did Mr Gilmartin have a meeting with Charles Haughey and his ministers on the February 1st or 2nd, 1989 dates; and second, had any such meeting taken place at any date.

Mr Maguire said Mr Gilmartin's evidence had been that Mr Liam Lawlor told him "the boss" wanted to see him in Leinster House. A number of ministers "happened to be there," he had told the tribunal.

Yet, counsel pointed out, Mr Gilmartin's diary recorded a "meeting with ministers" at 5.30 p.m. on February 1st, and made no mention of Mr Haughey. The reference to ministers "stuck out like a sore thumb" if he was meeting with Mr Haughey.

He said Mr Gilmartin's description of how he passed through Leinster House to get to the meeting did not tally with the physical layout of the building.

Mr Maguire also accused the witness of "embellishing" his evidence about the first meeting he alleges he had with Mr Ahern in October 1987.

Mr Gilmartin had told the tribunal how a security guard who was an ex-garda had taken him up to see the minister in his office in the Department of Labour on Mespil Road.

However, Mr Maguire said no ex-garda had been employed as a security guard.

"Well, it must have been a ghost, then. He told me he was an ex-garda," Mr Gilmartin replied.