Mr Tom Gilmartin, the Luton-based property developer who alleged that he gave a £50,000 cheque to Mr Padraig Flynn, has said he is sorry he ever responded to the EU Commissioner's comments.
Mr Gilmartin said he had not anticipated such intense media interest in his response to Mr Flynn's interview on the Late Late Show on January 15th, when the former Fianna Fail minister suggested that Mr Gilmartin and his wife were ill.
"We didn't bargain for this kind of media attention. We never wanted it, actually. Unfortunately, I responded to what Mr Flynn had to say on television. I feel really sorry for it now. I didn't intend to do anybody any harm", Mr Gilmartin told RTE yesterday.
RTE later quoted him as saying that he would testify to the Flood tribunal.
Yesterday's Sligo Champion quoted Mr Gilmartin as saying that he made a donation to Fianna Fail to "get them off my back". At the time, he believed obstacles were being placed deliberately in the way of developments he was proposing to undertake.
"It was suggested to me that the best way to ease all the pressure was to make a donation to the party. That's why I gave the £50,000 cheque to Mr Flynn, who was a Fianna Fail treasurer. I asked no favours for the money and none was given . . . I couldn't have cared less who it [the cheque] was made payable to. All I wanted to do was to get Fianna Fail off my back . . . When I refused to cough up more, they closed ranks and screwed me big time. Eventually, I had to go back to England with my tail between my legs."
Mr Gilmartin said that when he first arrived in Dublin Fianna Fail "were after me like lapdogs" because of the investment and jobs potential of his development plans.
He did not say who in Fianna Fail had requested money. Nor did he suggest that Mr Flynn or Mr Bertie Ahern had demanded money. He said he once met Mr Ahern in Leinster House in the company of the then Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, Mr Flynn, Mr Brian Lenihan and Mr Liam Lawlor.
Mr Gilmartin alleges that he was introduced to Mr Haughey by Mr Lawlor.
The property developer also stood by his assertion that he had met Mr Ahern four times, not three, as claimed by the Taoiseach. He insisted again that he had informed Mr Ahern of the cheque payment to Mr Flynn and claimed that during one of their meetings Mr Ahern had requested a donation to the party. Mr Gilmartin says he detailed to Mr Ahern the pressure he was under from Fianna Fail sources for donations.
He said he was glad Mr Ahern's memory of his meetings with him "now seems to be improving". He added: "Last Sunday, he hardly knew me. By Monday he could remember one meeting, and by Tuesday he recalled three."
Mr Gilmartin said that if Mr Ahern detailed which three meetings he remembered, he would "fill in the details on the fourth".
