Taoiseach was paid £80,000, Tribunal told

PROPERTY developer, Tom Gilmartin, has told the Mahon Tribunal that he was informed Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was paid £80,000 by a millionaire businessman for planning favours during the mid-1990s.

Mr Gilmartin claims the Cork-based developer, Owen O’Callaghan, once told him that he (O’Callaghan) had paid two large sums of money to Mr Ahern for his role in blocking a tax break for a rival shopping centre.

The two developers were involved in a controversial centre at Quarryvale in west Dublin during the early 1990s before Mr Gilmartin was forced to quit due to financial difficulties.