O'Callaghan says Reynolds backed €75m in Lotto funds for stadium

CORK DEVELOPER Owen O'Callaghan has said former taoiseach Albert Reynolds agreed to support his application for £75 million in National Lottery funding for an all-purpose stadium in west Dublin.

However, Mr Reynolds's support was subject to the approval of then minister for finance Bertie Ahern, he said.

The planning tribunal is currently questioning Mr O'Callaghan as part of the Quarryvale II module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre is built.

Neilstown, west Dublin, was to be the site for the stadium. This land had originally been zoned for retail development, but lost the zoning when Quarryvale received retail zoning.

Mr O'Callaghan said the stadium had three versions; the first was a 40,000-seater national football stadium; the second, conceived in 1992, was a larger and more expensive all-purpose stadium, which was dropped in 1994 when Mr Ahern said he would not support it.

A third version was put forward in 1997 as a home for English football club Wimbledon FC.

Mr O'Callaghan said this plan fell apart because the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) did not want it to go ahead.

It felt a team like Wimbledon in Dublin might affect its authority, he said.

Mr O'Callaghan said he did have meetings with Mr Reynolds about the stadium in 1991 and 1992.

He told the tribunal that there were no notes taken at any of the meetings and most meetings were one-to-one, but sometimes included lobbyist Frank Dunlop.

At one of the meetings, in late April 1992, Mr O'Callaghan said Mr Reynolds told him he could not provide capital support from the government for the project, which was to cost £60 million, but he would support National Lottery funding of £3 million a year for 25 years until the project's debt was paid off.

The stadium would then revert to State ownership, Mr O'Callaghan said.

"It wasn't concrete, but was very positive support," Mr O'Callaghan said. He said Mr Reynolds said he would support it, subject to the approval of Mr Ahern.

Mr O'Callaghan also met then minister for sport Liam Aylward and then minister for the environment Michael Smith to discuss the project.

However, he said he did not have a meeting with Mr Ahern, then minister for finance, until 1994, although he may have met him socially in Cork before that.

Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, noted an entry in Mr Dunlop's diary showing a meeting with Mr Ahern in April 1992. She said Mr Dunlop had told the tribunal he could have mentioned the stadium to Mr Ahern at that meeting.

Mr O'Callaghan said if Mr Dunlop had spoken to Mr Ahern about the stadium he would have told him.

"It never happened, I'm certain of that," he said.

Ms Dillon asked him why he was so anxious to distance himself from meetings with Mr Ahern.

Mr O'Callaghan said he felt he had made a mistake by not speaking to Mr Ahern about the project sooner than he did.

Mr Ahern might have been upset because he did not go to him earlier, he said.

Ms Dillon also asked Mr O'Callaghan about a letter he wrote to the FAI in February 1992, in which he said "the present political situation may be even more favourable".

Mr O'Callaghan said he meant that Mr Reynolds had been made taoiseach but also that at the time, during the Jack Charlton era as Republic team manager, soccer was very popular.