Ex-journalist backs claims by Gilmartin

A FORMER journalist has supported controversial claims by property developer Tom Gilmartin that he attended a meeting with senior government ministers in Leinster House in February 1989.

Freda Kelly, who edited a west Dublin-based freesheet called Newswest, told the Planning Tribunal yesterday that the late Fianna Fáil minister, Brian Lenihan, confirmed to her in conversation that such a meeting had taken place.

All but one of the politicians whom Mr Gilmartin claims he met on that occasion including Taoiseach Bertie Ahern have no recollection that such a meeting ever occurred.