Kennedy never worked in his arcade, spouse says

The businessman Mr Jim Kennedy has no involvement and has never worked "one day of his life" in the amusement arcade in Dublin he once owned, according to his wife.

Mrs Antoinette Kennedy said she was the director and sole shareholder of KSK Enterprises, the company operating Amusement City on Westmoreland Street. Mr Kennedy ceased to be a shareholder in 1992, resigned as a director in 2001 and had no role in the company.

The former Dublin assistant county manager, Mr George Redmond, had told the tribunal over two years ago that he used to call regularly to pick up cash payments at the arcade; he said these represented repayments on a loan. According to Mr Frank Dunlop, Mr Kennedy, on his rare visits to Ireland, operated an office from behind a steel door in the basement of the arcade.

However, Mrs Kennedy told the tribunal yesterday her husband never worked there. "He has an allergy to smoke and doesn't like that business." She also denied her husband ever stayed at the arcade. There was a couch, but "nothing you could call a flat".

Asked why her husband had resigned as a director of KSK Enterprises, she said this was a question for Mr Kennedy. He had no involvement with the company and his son John had taken over his directorship.

Asked whether she was a director of any other companies, Ms Kennedy said she wasn't.

However, Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal, pointed out that she was registered in the Companies Office as the director of two building companies, Finnstown Homes and Ballyowen Castle Homes.

Asked to explain why she hadn't mentioned her involvement with these companies, Ms Kennedy said it "hadn't occurred" to her.

Last October, Ms Kennedy filed a brief statement with the tribunal, in which she stated she had no involvement, direct or indirect, in the lands the tribunal is investigating at Carrickmines.

She said she had no details of any benefits made to elected officials or public officials in relation to the lands.

In evidence, she said she knew nothing about Paisley Park, the company which owned the lands in the early 1990s.

Asked what she knew about the land, she recalled that her husband was made aware of them by a Mr Jack Tracey, who had supplied stone when Mr Kennedy was building houses in Clondalkin. Mr Tracey said his brother Bob had been trying to sell the land in Carrickmines for three years without success. Mr Bob Tracey was "in a bit of a pickle" because his marriage was breaking up and the land had to be sold.

Mr Tracey's wife Laura had called into the amusement arcade, where she told Mr Kennedy the couple was separating and she wanted the lands sold.

"I never heard about the land until Charlie Bird [of RTÉ] started standing outside the arcade and telling everyone about the land in Carrickmines," the witness said.

Ms Kennedy denied any knowledge of the various offshore companies the tribunal is investigating in relation to her husband's dealings.

Asked what she knew about Frank Dunlop, the witness said she heard socially that there had been a tragedy in Mr Dunlop's family a few years ago.

Asked about another unnamed individual, "a chap with glasses who lived abroad and travelled back and forth" and who said he would be getting Mr Liam Lawlor to act as a consultant for him, Ms Kennedy said her husband "hit the roof" when he heard this, saying he wouldn't "have anything to do" with him. "He is the kiss of death," Mr Kennedy is said to have warned.

Ms Kennedy said she wasn't aware that her solicitor, Mr Brian Delahunt, had also represented her husband. She had come to the tribunal without legal representation to minimise costs.