Gilmartin says Reynolds used IDA to thwart him

The IDA, the Industrial Development Authority, took control of land close to Quarryvale, which had been offered to Tom Gilmartin by Dublin Corporation, after then minister for finance Albert Reynolds told the IDA to "jump on it", Mr Gilmartin told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.

He said the corporation had offered him 180 acres of land across the road from his Quarryvale town centre site. He spent money on drainage and incorporated the land into his plans for the Quarryvale development. He was then contacted by the local authority's chief valuer Michael McLoone, in September 1990, who told him it was withdrawing its offer.

Mr Gilmartin said he found it "very funny" that the IDA had jumped in on the site since it had been there "for donkey's years" and it had no interest in it.

He said he later told rival developer Owen O'Callaghan what had happened and Mr O'Callaghan "scoffed" at him.

"Mr O'Callaghan duly informed me that of course the IDA had jumped in on it," he said.

"He was scoffing at the idea that now I didn't have the site and now that I looked like a right prat. And his statement was 'Albert seen to that', meaning Albert Reynolds. I took it it was at Owen O'Callaghan's request because he always claimed that he and Albert Reynolds were buddies."

He said the land had been taken from him to "discredit and undermine" him because his plans and his brochure incorporated the site.

He added that the IDA never did develop the site and the council later contacted him and asked him to find a buyer for it.

Tribunal counsel Pat Quinn SC highlighted a written statement to the tribunal, provided by Mr McLoone in April 2007, in which Mr McLoone said he had no recollection of being instructed to enter negotiations with Mr Gilmartin about the site in question.

"I can sincerely say that my recollection of many events in and around 1990 is somewhat vague," Mr McLoone's statement said.

However, Mr Gilmartin said he had provided a letter to the tribunal which showed that the council had permitted him to include the site in his plans.

Mr Quinn read part of a letter from the late Liam Lawlor, sent to the tribunal in December 2004.

Mr Lawlor had claimed that Mr Gilmartin had interfered with proposed funding for an extension to Fonthill Road, which would have improved access to a rival town centre site at Neilstown.

He claimed Mr Gilmartin had "exercised undue influence" on the Department of the Environment to prevent the funding of the road. Mr Gilmartin said, however, that Mr Lawlor's assertion was "another Lawlor stroke".

By late 1990, Mr Gilmartin's plan to develop the Quarryvale site was falling apart, the tribunal heard.

His initial financial backers had withdrawn; he owed Allied Irish Bank £9 million and Mr O'Callaghan was still owed £1.35 million. However, Mr Gilmartin said, he did not want to allow Mr O'Callaghan into the Quarryvale deal.

"We didn't need Mr O'Callaghan; he had nothing to contribute, other than his political clout, of course," he said.

He told the tribunal he was tied "hand, foot and finger" and he believed there was collusion between the bank and Mr O'Callaghan to get Mr O'Callaghan involved in the Quarryvale scheme.

Mr Quinn pointed out, however, that the bank's memos and correspondence suggested that all the bank wanted was for Mr O'Callaghan to be bought out.

"Well, of course the bank's internal paperwork would be sanitised to suit, wouldn't it?" Mr Gilmartin said.