MAHON TRIBUNAL:NO CIVIL servants attended any of the meetings in the early and mid-1990s between former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and property developer Owen O'Callaghan, Mr O'Callaghan told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.
At the time, Mr Ahern was minister for finance. Mr O'Callaghan held discussions with him concerning tax designation for Dublin town centres and State support to build a national stadium in Neilstown. Mr O'Callaghan said he did not think any civil servants attended any of the meetings he held with the then taoiseach Albert Reynolds. During the early 1990s, Mr O'Callaghan was lobbying Mr Reynolds for State support for the stadium project.
Mr Reynolds met Mr O'Callaghan and Kevin Burke, of US financial firm Chilton O'Connor, at the Connemara Coast Hotel, Co Galway, on July 28th, 1994, with no civil servants present. The meeting was arranged through lobbyist Frank Dunlop, who has told the tribunal he made corrupt payments to Dublin councillors in pursuance of Mr O'Callaghan's major project at the time, the Quarryvale centre.
Mr O'Callaghan told Patricia Dillon SC for the tribunal that Mr Reynolds was shown a detailed feasibility study drafted by Chilton O'Connor. It envisaged the project getting National Lottery funding of less than £3 million per annum. It included projections based on the possibility of tax designation being given to the Neilstown site.
He said Mr Reynolds was "very supportive" of the proposal. A copy of the analysis was sent by Mr Dunlop to Mr Ahern and an official in his department who analysed the report was strongly against the stadium being built.
He said during his discussions with Mr Reynolds and Mr Ahern, the subject of the substantial support he was giving Fianna Fáil was not raised. Mr O'Callaghan said he was not expecting anything in return for the £100,000 he gave Fianna Fáil at about this time.
The stadium project was first suggested by the late Liam Lawlor, who was in receipt of payments from Mr O'Callaghan and Mr Dunlop. He agreed that Mr Dunlop, Mr Lawlor and architect Ambrose Kelly were each to get a quarter share of the 55-acre Neilstown site if the project went ahead, but added: "Frank Dunlop knew as well as I would that the national stadium would probably never happen."
Asked if he knew if Mr Dunlop made a personal contribution to Mr Ahern in furtherance of the project, Mr O'Callaghan said: "No, I certainly do not." Asked about a £20,000 cash lodgement to an account in the names of Mr Ahern's daughters on August 8th, 1994, he said: "I know absolutely nothing about that."