The JMSE chairman, Mr Joseph Murphy jnr, strongly repudiated all the main allegations made against him by Mr James Gogarty in his evidence to the tribunal on the payments to Mr Ray Burke and the sale of the Murphy-owned lands in north Dublin.
He denied being present when the payment was made to Mr Burke in June 1989 and said he took no part in the negotiations with Mr Michael Bailey with regard to the sale of land. Neither had he ever met Mr George Redmond, the assistant Dublin city and county manager, as alleged.
It was totally inaccurate to say he was involved in the negotiations with Mr Bailey, he insisted, "whom I never knew until October 1992". And he denied Mr Gogarty's allegations that he had been present when the money paid to Mr Burke had allegedly been "prepared" at the JMSE offices in Santry. He was in London at this time and later attended the funeral of a close relative in Arigna, for which he had witnesses.
"The suggestion that I would go to a meeting to bribe someone to redevelop lands that were being sold is absolutely ridiculous," he said.
On Mr Gogarty's allegation that he had paid off Mr Redmond at a meeting in Clontarf Castle, Mr Murphy said he was in London at the time, and this was "a complete and utter lie".
Asked by Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, why such allegations might have been made against him, Mr Murphy said that at a meeting with Mr Gogarty in the Berkeley Court the former JMSE chairman had demanded £400,000 from him. He said he would "take it out on me" if he did not get his money, said Mr Murphy. "My refusal to pay £400,000 blackmail money was the reason why Gogarty was making these allegations," Mr Murphy told the tribunal.
The first time he became aware that JMSE had paid political contributions was on July 1st, 1997, after meeting Mr Dermot Ahern TD. In an earlier meeting with Mr Ahern on June 24th, two days before the current Cabinet was formed, Mr Murphy had denied any such payments had been made.
After the second meeting he rang Mr Roger Copsey, the JMSE accountant, who confirmed that "yes, there was some sort of political contribution", but could not say either to whom or what party. Mr Copsey had said: "You would have to check the documents."
Some time in August Mr Denis McArdle, solicitor, furnished Mr Murphy with some check details and other documentation including a memo from Mr Copsey: "When I sat down with him he remembered there had been a political contribution but could not be specific. He told me to check the records thoroughly. I may well have mentioned Jim Gogarty in connection with that."
Ms Dillon then went on to question Mr Murphy about his whereabouts in May and June 1989 in the light of Mr Gogarty's previous evidence to the tribunal. After a series of brief exchanges between Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for the Murphy family, and the tribunal counsel, it was agreed that Mr Murphy should be allowed to read a supplementary statement dated April 16th, 1999, that he had prepared on Mr Gogarty's allegations against him.
In it he reviewed his itinerary for the period referred to in the allegations. He was in London on May 6th, 1988, from which time he had embarked on a tour of the Murphy sites in England over the next couple of weeks. He could date this precisely from May 16th, he said, the day they had "dismissed Liam Conroy's right-hand man", whom the Murphys held responsible for some serious pricing irregularities with regard to contracts. Mr Conroy, the JMSE chief executive, was on holiday at the time.
"I was not in Ireland next until June 6th or 7th, 1988," he said. "I was not in George Redmond's office as alleged and, indeed, never met him prior to the tribunal."
He was in Britain for the whole month of May until the 30th. On the 31st he flew to Dublin and travelled to Waterford for a wedding. He had arranged to meet his cousin, Denis Flynn, at the Bridge Hotel. Mr Flynn rang to say he could not be there until the next day.
He was in Waterford until 2.30 p.m. next day when he returned to London. The following morning he was working on a job in Wandsworth, south London. He was there for a few days when he heard of the illness and subsequent death in Arigna of Mrs Mary Elizabeth Flynn, "the woman I called Granny".
He flew to Ireland and waited for Mr Derek Green, who was on the next flight from Heathrow. He hired a car and they drove to Arigna. Mr Gogarty was at the funeral. He was asked back to the hotel by the family, but declined.
Mr Murphy said he flew back to London on June 12th and returned to the job at Wandsworth, which was so urgent by this time that he had had to turn down an invitation to another wedding in Longford.
He did not get to Ireland again that year before the end of September or the beginning of October. He was there again in November for an All Blacks rugby match but did no business and did not visit the Santry office.
He had never been in Clontarf Castle in his life, he concluded.