Moriarty tribunal: Former minister for energy Bobby Molloy said yesterday he was not aware of any involvement of Charles Haughey in the sale of Glen Ding wood to Cement Roadstone in December 1990.
Mr Molloy was giving evidence in relation to the tribunal's ongoing inquiry into the sale of the Co Wicklow lands to Cement Roadstone for £1.25 million.
It is investigating whether there was any involvement of Mr Haughey in the transaction. At the time the man who organised Mr Haughey's finances, the late Des Traynor, was a senior executive with Cement Roadstone.
"There was no involvement of Mr Haughey in this transaction, as far as I am aware," Mr Molloy said of the then taoiseach. "I was not approached by Mr Haughey or anyone on his behalf."
The only approach was from Brendan Johnston of Johnston Industries, who was also interested in buying the lands.
The property was being sold as part of a government strategy of selling off surplus assets with a view to raising funds to reduce the national debt. The sale was not put out to public tender.
In the late 1980s a number of parties had been told the land would be sold by way of public tender. Also, Mr Molloy's predecessor, Ray Burke, had answered a Dáil question on the matter and said the land would be put out to public tender. Mr Molloy said he had not been aware of these facts.
He said if he had been so aware, he would have felt "committed". He would not have been able to proceed without giving the matter consideration. On the face of it, he would have had no choice but to go ahead with the commitments made, he told Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal. It was "a question of honour and living up to your word".
However, the former secretary general of the department, John Loughrey, told John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that he felt a way would have been found to get around the problem. He had not been aware of the commitments. A way would have been found to "harvest the very fine offer from Roadstone", he said.
Mr Loughrey said the government had instruc- ted that surplus assets be sold and his focus was to maximise receipts for the taxpayer.
If the department had gone to the marketplace, a public campaign against the sale or development of the lands might have been initiated, he added. This was "the very nub of the issue as far as I was concerned".
He said Roadstone had an adjoining site and this gave it an advantage in terms of access to the Glen Ding site. Also, it already had machinery on the adjoining site, so this would provide for savings in terms of start-up costs.
However, he said Mr Johnston's pound was as good as Roadstone's and if Mr Johnston had put in a higher bid, "the prize would have been his".
Mr Loughrey told Eugene Regan SC, for the department, that he did not agree with the finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, that the manner in which the sale was conducted was "inappropriate".
The tribunal resumes today.