SOME of the country’s largest firms continued to show their charitable side this Christmas, despite the economic downturn.

BUSINESSMAN Tom Gilmartin claimed he didn’t have the air fare when he said he would not be present for a scheduled board meeting concerning the west Dublin development at Quarryvale, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

The chairman of AIB, Dermot Gleeson, has told the company's AGM the bank is "in better shape than ever before".