The managing director of a huge property development company was told in 1989 by Mr George Redmond that Dublin Corporation was about to sell over 70 acres in the Quarryvale area to another developer, the tribunal heard.
Mr Redmond said he would be making a full statement about Quarryvale to the tribunal.
He said the individual was involved in a major town centre development which had not then started. There were all sorts of major implications and problems. It was not moving and did not until the mid-1990s. Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, asked what the circumstances of the contact were, as Quarryvale was not this individual's property.
Mr Redmond said in commercial circles at that time, there was a brochure circulating which stated that the development in the Quarryvale area would be the biggest shopping centre in Europe. In 1989, zoning was against the development and it was impossible from the roads position. It was a no hope position.
Mr Redmond said when he was just about to retire it came to his notice that Dublin Corporation was going to sell a big acreage in the Quarryvale area. He spoke to the individual and told him about the sale. The individual asked what he could do about it. Mr Redmond said he told him that if he wanted industrial land then he should write to the corporation and he understood the individual did so.
The price of the land increased from "about £40,000 to £80,000 an acre", said Mr Redmond.