Dublin man gives Ahern alibi over meeting

A Dublin man has appeared at the Mahon tribunal to provide an alibi for the Taoiseach on the day it is claimed he was at a controversial meeting with Mr Tom Gilmartin.

Mr Con Hackett, a production operative with Leo Pharma, said he was presented with a certificate in manual handling at the National Industrial Fire and Safety Training Centre in Glasnevin on February 1 ^st, 1989 by Mr Ahern, who was the minister for labour at the time.

This is the date Mr Gilmartin claims Mr Ahern was at a meeting he had with the then taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, Mr Gerry Collins, the late Mr Brian Lenihan, Mr Seamus Brennan, Mr Padraig Flynn, Mrs Mary O'Rourke and Mr Burke in Leinster House.

Mr Hackett said he heard an item on RTÉ radio last month about Mr Ahern's whereabouts on that date being raised at the tribunal.

"It twigged in my brain that I was there," he said. He then contacted the Fianna Fáil headquarters, telling them he had the certificate and a photograph of himself with Mr Ahern. Both were shown to the tribunal.

"I don't have any allegiance with anybody," Mr Hackett said, when asked by Ms Patricia Dillon, SC for the tribunal, if he was affiliated with any political party.

He said Mr Ahern arrived at around 5 p.m. to present the certificates to him and the 20 or 25 other people who had taken the test that day. Mr Gilmartin's diary records the Leinster House meeting as taking place at 5.30 a.m.

Mr Ahern conceded to the tribunal earlier this month he may have been at a "casual" meeting with Mr Gilmartin that day. In his evidence to the tribunal on April 7th, Mr Ahern said while he did not believe any meeting in "a formal sense" took place, an "informal gathering" could well have occurred.

Mr Ahern said it was, and still is, a "regular occurrence for a minister to pull a few colleagues aside to meet certain people". He maintained "casual chit-chats between ministers" and certain individuals happened all the time in Leinster House.