The man who told Mr James Gogarty that JMSE made payments to two senior politicians was Mr Frank Reynolds, the present managing director, the tribunal was told. Mr Gogarty said he told journalist Frank Connolly, who published the story on May 31st, 1998.
Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for JMSE, said the story contained a quite fresh and new allegation. He asked if there were any documentary details to support it.
Mr Gogarty said there was a letter from Mr Jack Manahan, architect, of Conroy Manahan Associates. The letter was dated September 15th, 1983, and was addressed to Grafton, a JMSE company. It concerned the proposed development of a site at Forest Road, Swords.
It stated that the value of the development could be raised by £250,000 by increasing density. A new planning application was submitted to the County Council and was granted on October 1st, 1982.
The letter stated: "However, a local resident objected and appealed it to An Bord Pleanala. Through certain `channels' I was able to discover this in time, that the board intended to turn down the planning decision, but I was eventually successful in having this reversed and full planning permission was granted on June 21st, 1983 for the increased development of 206 houses."
Mr Cooney asked was this the documentary evidence when Mr Gogarty gave Mr Connolly information which led to the publication.
Mr Gogarty: "That's right."
Mr Cooney said the story subhead was "Gogarty names conduit for new political payments", and asked: "Who is the man whom you named as the conduit?"
"The man who was feeding me all this bloody information was Frank Reynolds over the years and looking back I was a bloody eejit, but I was involved," Mr Gogarty said.