Mahon tribunal:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern received more than IR£100,000 from developer Owen O'Callaghan, the tribunal was told. Developer Tom Gilmartin said he was told by Mr O'Callaghan of three payments by him to Mr Ahern, in relation to three separate matters.
However Mr O'Callaghan's counsel, Paul Sreenan SC, accused Mr Gilmartin of telling lies and making up stories in his dealings with the tribunal.
He said Mr Gilmartin's story changed in his dealings with the tribunal and that persons who were telling the truth did not vary the details of their story. Mr Gilmartin said he was not telling lies and that he was not motivated by a sense of grievance, as suggested by Mr Sreenan.
Mr Gilmartin said he was told by Mr O'Callaghan that he, Mr O'Callaghan, had made two payments to Mr Ahern, of IR£50,000 and IR£30,000. The larger payment was for Mr Ahern's role in securing a land sale by Dublin Corporation linked to the Quarryvale project. The alleged IR£30,000 was in relation to a tax designation decision affecting Green Property plc, and was also linked to the Quarryvale project.
Mr Ahern also got a "cut" out of a payment made to former taoiseach Albert Reynolds in relation to tax designation in Athlone, Mr Gilmartin said he was told. He believed he was told by Mr O'Callaghan that this latter amount given to Mr Ahern was IR£25,000 or IR£30,000.
Mr Sreenan pointed to memos of contacts between Mr Gilmartin and the tribunal, where no record was made of Mr Gilmartin telling the tribunal of these alleged comments about payments being made by Mr O'Callaghan. Mr Gilmartin said he was "confident" that he told the complete story to the tribunal in 1998 or 1999.
Mr Sreenan said it was not until November 1999, during Mr Gilmartin's 26th phone conversation with the tribunal, that there was mention of the alleged IR£50,000 payment to Mr Ahern, and Mr Gilmartin did not say at that time that Mr O'Callaghan had told him about the payment.
Mr Sreenan put it to Mr Gilmartin that he had first mentioned the alleged IR£50,000 payment to Mr Ahern after hearing from a journalist of an allegation of a payment of that size to Mr Ahern being made by way of Denis "Starry" O'Brien.
Mr Ahern later took a successful libel action against Mr O'Brien when this allegation was published in a newspaper. Mr Sreenan asked if "certain journalists" were feeding information to Mr Gilmartin that he was in turn feeding to the tribunal, in order to provoke inquiries by them.
Mr Sreenan pointed to a tribunal memo of a conversation with Mr Gilmartin in which he said information concerning the alleged IR£30,000 and IR£50,000 payments had come to him "indirectly through an intermediary" and that the person providing this information was "afraid to come forward".
Mr Gilmartin said he had separately been told by Mr O'Callaghan himself that he had made the payments. He said that Mr O'Callaghan had "embezzled" more than £1 million from his, Mr Gilmartin's company, Barkhill, to make corrupt payments, including payments to and by way of lobbyist Frank Dunlop.
Money was "embezzled from my company, paid out in corruption money, authorised by your client," he said to Mr Sreenan.
