Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds has decribed as "outrageous and spurious" the allegations that he received offshore payments from Cork property developer Owen O'Callaghan.
Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds
Speaking on RTE's Morning Irelandradio programme, the former taoiseach said there was no truth to the claims made to the Mahon tribunal by developer Tom Gilmartin.
The High Court heard yesterday that Mr Gilmartin had alleged Mr Reynolds received £150,000 from Mr O'Callaghan. "I want to deny it as loudly and as clearly as I can that I never, ever received any money from Owen O'Callaghan and that he never put money into any offshore account on my behalf," he said.
Mr Reynolds also denied having an offshore account in any of the areas mentioned by Mr Gilmartin.
The allegations were made in private to the tribunal by Tom Gilmartin, but were never pursued by the tribunal. Mr Gilmartin claimed that both Mr Reynolds and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had received off-shore payments from Mr O'Callaghan, and that Mr Ahern and Mr Reynolds had accounts in Jersey, Liechtenstein and Dutch Antilles.
Although Mr Reynolds said he could not discuss the affairs of the tribunal, he claimed he had no idea that allegations of this nature had been made about him.
"I would have thought that when I was in the tribunal giving evidence that was the time to put that sort of allegations to me and it was never done," he said.