Mr Mark FitzGerald said he took legal advice as to the requirement to make a disclosure to the 1997 McCracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal or to the Moriarty tribunal and had been told there was no such requirement.
Mr FitzGerald was asked by Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, why he had not disclosed the matters he was now disclosing to the McCracken tribunal, which sat in 1997, or to the Moriarty tribunal until late last year. The Moriarty tribunal has been in existence since late 1997.
Mr FitzGerald said the thought had obviously crossed his mind. He had taken legal advice and the advice was that there was no such requirement on him.
Mr FitzGerald was approached by the tribunal after his name was noticed in documents concerning fund-raising by Fine Gael from Mr Denis O'Brien.
Mr Healy said Mr Michael Lowry has told the tribunal in a statement of intended evidence that Mr Ben Dunne told him in 1995 that he was seeking an increase in the amount of rent he was receiving for Marlborough House, Dublin, and that the matter had gone to arbitration. He said Mr Dunne asked him if he would ask Mr Mark FitzGerald if the arbitration process could be "hurried up".
Mr Lowry is to tell the tribunal that he conveyed this to Mr FitzGerald.
Mr FitzGerald is to say it was not fair and not correct to say he tried to influence the rent review.
Mr Healy said Mr Dunne, in a statement of intended evidence, said he was a director of Barkisland Ltd, a company which had bought Marlborough House, Marlborough Street, Dublin, in 1995.
The rent on the building had been up for review in 1994 and, as agreement on the new rate could not be reached, the matter went to arbitration.
After an earlier arbitrator was assigned and resigned, Mr Gordon Gill was appointed on April 7th, 1995. A submission for a rent of approximately £8 per square foot per annum was submitted.
At the close of the arbitration, a rate of approximately £640,000 per annum for 82,000 square feet of office space, plus storage and parking, was agreed.
When he heard Mr Gill had been appointed, Mr Dunne thought of contacting Mr Lowry and asking him if he would ask Mr FitzGerald if the matter could be hurried up. He did this because he knew they were both in Fine Gael. He said he never asked if the rent could be increased to £10 per square foot.
Mr Dunne said he was subsequently told by Mr Lowry that Mr FitzGerald had said he could not help with the matter.
