No civil servants attended any of the meetings in the early and mid-1990s between the former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and property developer Owen O’Callaghan, Mr O’Callaghan told the Mahon tribunal today.
At the time, Mr Ahern was Minister for Finance. Mr O’Callaghan held discussions with him concerning tax designation for Dublin town centres as well as State support for project to build a national stadium in Neilstown.
Mr O’Callaghan said he did not think any civil servants attended any of the meetings he held with the then taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. During the early 1990s Mr O’Callaghan was lobbying Mr Reynolds for State support for the stadium project.
Mr Reynolds met with Mr O’Callaghan and Kevin Burke, of US financial firm Chilton and O’Connor, at the Connamara Coast Hotel, Co Galway, on July 28th, 1994, with no civil servants present. The meeting had been arranged through the office of lobbyist Frank Dunlop, who has told the tribunal he made corrupt payments to Dublin councillors in pursuance of Mr O’Callaghan’s major project at the time, the Quarryvale or Liffey Valley centre.
Mr O’Callaghan told Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal today, that Mr Reynolds was shown a detailed feasibility study drafted by Chilton O’Connor. The study envisaged the project getting National Lottery funding of less than £3 million per annum. It included projections based on the possibility of tax designation being given to the Neilstown site.
Mr O’Callaghan said Mr Reynolds was “very supportive” of the proposal.
A copy of the analysis was later sent by Mr Dunlop to Mr Ahern and an official in his department, who analysed the report, was strongly against the stadium being built.
The official said neither the financiers nor the developer would be exposed to any risk under the plan. Mr O’Callaghan said he did not agree with this interpretation.
Mr O’Callaghan said that during his discussions with Mr Reynolds and Mr Ahern, the subject of the substantial support he was giving Fianna Fáil at the time was not raised. He did not think that would have been appropriate.
The stadium project had been first suggested by the late Liam Lawlor, who was in receipt of payments from Mr O’Callaghan and Mr Dunlop. Mr O’Callaghan said he was not aware at the time that Mr Lawlor’s son, Niall Lawlor, was working for Chilton O’Connor.
Mr O’Callaghan agreed that £100,000 he agreed to give Fianna Fáil in 1994 was an extremely significant amount of money at the time, equal to the cost of about three of the houses he was at the time building in Cork.
He said he wasn’t expecting anything in return. He said the delay between his agreeing to pay the money, in January 1994, and the writing of a cheque for £80,000 in June 1994, was because he wanted to delay paying the money for as long as possible.
He said Fianna Fáil was the party he supported and wanted to be in power. It was in significant debt and he was ever “slightly honoured” to be asked.
Mr O’Callaghan agreed that Mr Dunlop, Mr Lawlor, and architect Ambrose Kelly were each to get a quarter share of the 55 acre Neilstown site, if the stadium project went ahead. However he added: “Frank Dunlop knew as well as I would, that the national stadium would probably never happen.”
Asked if he knew if Mr Dunlop ever made a personal contribution to Mr Ahern in pursuit of the project, Mr O’Callaghan said: “No, I certainly do not.”
Asked about a £20,000 cash lodgement to an account in the names of Mr Ahern’s daughters on August 8th, 1994, Mr O’Callaghan said: “I know absolutely nothing about that.”
