Gogarty displays impressive command of detail in account of career with builder

At the end of his first day of evidence at the tribunal he played a large part in creating, Mr James Gogarty has established himself as a credible if unpredictable witness.

Labelled unreliable and a crank by his detractors, the 81-year-old former building company executive displayed an impressive command of detail in his first few hours in the witness box.

Though frail and somewhat deaf, Mr Gogarty overcame a shaky start to give a comprehensive account of his early years and his relationship with the millionaire builder, Mr Joseph Murphy snr, to whom he appears to have been in thrall for the last 20 years of his working life.

As he took his listeners through a series of dates and the complex trading arrangements of the Murphy group companies, the memories of a long life and career came tumbling back in what seemed a jumbled and often haphazard fashion.

Thus his testimony ranged far and wide, and well away from the terms of reference of the tribunal. He related how Irish workers for one of Mr Joseph Murphy snr's companies used steel sourced in Dublin to help to build the controversial Sellafield nuclear plant in Britain. "That was done very discreetly because back home they were averse to nuclear involvement," he acknowledged.

Later Mr Gogarty told of his role in refurbishing Dublin's Gaiety Theatre which had been bought "by accident" by Mr Murphy along with other properties in the area. The late television presenter Mr Eamonn Andrews, who was leasing the theatre, had let it go "to rack and ruin", he claimed.

On the way, Mr Gogarty told the tribunal of Mr Murphy snr's drink problem and business difficulties following the collapse of a project in which he had invested £6 million in the Isle of Man.

After the renovation of the Gaiety, he recalled meeting the former Dublin city manager, Mr George Redmond, and being told to see that Mr Redmond was supplied with tickets for shows at the theatre. This was the nearest the day's proceedings got to the substantive issue of planning corruption.

But that was only because he wasn't asked. Today, however, it is expected Mr Gogarty will restate his allegations about payments from Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering and the developer Mr Michael Bailey to the former minister for foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke.

Mr Gogarty has alleged that Mr Burke received £80,000 in payments from JMSE and Mr Bailey during the general election campaign in 1989 in return for arranging planning permission for land in north Co Dublin. Mr Burke has admitted receiving £30,000 from JMSE, but Mr Bailey has denied giving any money.

Though summoned to attend yesterday's hearing, there was no sign of Mr Burke in the crowded tribunal hall in Dublin Castle. The former minister has seldom been seen in public since his resignation in 1997.

Mr Gogarty has also made allegations about payments to Mr Redmond, which Mr Redmond has denied.

The chairman of the tribunal, Mr Justice Flood, had earlier rejected calls from lawyers for Mr Bailey and Mr Murphy for a postponement of Mr Gogarty's evidence.

Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for JMSE, had complained that his clients were being furnished with "carefully selected extracts" from the documentation provided to the tribunal by Mr Gogarty. In an inquiry, "all the cards are laid on the table", but this had not happened in this case.

Mindful perhaps of Mr Redmond's failure last week to get Supreme Court backing for a private hearing, lawyers for the various builders opted not to carry out their oft-expressed threats to go to the High Court.

Thus it was that 14 months after it was established, the tribunal called its first major witness after lunch yesterday. Few of the lawyers, journalists or onlookers present were old enough to remember the "tough times" that Mr Gogarty recalled. It took him 17 years of broken study to obtain his engineering degree; at one stage, he was pounding the beat as a garda until 2 a.m., then rising early to attend lectures the following morning.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Mr Gogarty worked with other country builders who were creating the new housing estates of suburban Dublin. In 1968, at the age of 51, he began working for Mr Murphy snr, a man who shared his humble origins and Garda background.

Twenty years later, he was still in harness to the man he referred to simply as "senior". Mr Gogarty worked 12-hour days at a time most other men were thinking of retirement.

In his late 60s he spent two years working in Britain, living in a hotel and commuting home at weekends. Mr Murphy would ring him at any time of the night or morning, he claimed.

The reason he hung on was his pension; he had seven children and a wife 20 years his junior. He said Mr Murphy promised him a pension lump sum of £500,000, and as this failed to materialise, his concern grew.

At one point, Mr Cooney accused the witness of defaming his clients "left, right and centre" and in front of the media. But as Mr Gogarty got into his stride, one got the sense that he would have a lot more to say today.