Mr Christopher Doyle, a former district officer with Dublin Fire Brigade who attended a trailer fire which destroyed documents owned by Bovale Development in Finglas. Photograph: Joe St Leger
A district officer with Dublin Fire Brigade told the Flood tribunal that a man fitting Mr Tom Bailey's description was at the scene when a fire destroyed documentation owned by Bovale Development in Finglas.
Two gardai also told the tribunal that a security guard had said the trailer which caught fire was used as a makeshift builders' canteen.
The tribunal was told in February that the trailer had been used to house company documents, which came under the tribunal's terms of reference, along with builders' equipment.
Mr Christopher Doyle, district officer, said he arrived at Mygan Business Park in Finglas at 6.10 a.m. on July 2nd, 1998, to find a small, timber-framed trailer on fire. He said two units from Dublin Fire Brigade were already dealing with the fire.
After about 10 minutes Mr Doyle was approached by one of the firemen, who told him a man wanted to talk with him. Mr Doyle said the man was concerned about documents in the trailer but he told him he would have to wait until the fire was extinguished before he inspected them. "It was obvious that nothing living or material would have survived the fire I saw," Mr Doyle said.
Asked for a description of the man, Mr Doyle said: "My recollection is that he was a stocky man with a better head of hair than I had . . . He was heavily built like a prop-forward on a rugby team." He added that the man had a country accent.
When shown a picture of Mr Tom Bailey, Mr Doyle said he could not be 100 per cent sure but the man in the picture fitted the build of the man he had spoken to at the scene.
Mr Doyle said he did not see the man at the fire again.
He did not try to establish a cause of the fire at that stage as between 50 and 100 similar incidents happened each week.
Det Garda Adrian Tierney said he had attended the fire after seeing smoke as he was driving to work at Finglas Garda station. He said he noticed the trailer was in an area where site construction equipment had been kept.
He spoke with a security guard on duty, who told him the trailer was an old container unit which had been used by workmen as a canteen. Det Garda Tierney said the trailer was gutted on the inside.
He said he never received a call about the fire, and no report was logged.
Garda Colm Horkan gave evidence that he had attended the scene with Det Garda Tierney and had had a similar conversation with the security guard. He added that the trailer did not look as though it would contain files or an office.