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.

Mr Lenihan's sister, Fianna Fáil senator Mary O'Rourke is the only other person who has provided corroboration to the developer's allegations. Mr Gilmartin claims he was asked to pay £5m into an Isle of Man Bank account if he wanted to get his proposals for a major shopping centre at Quarryvale off the ground. He maintains the demand was made by an unknown man in the corridor of Leinster House immediately after leaving the meeting with several members of the Cabinet.

Ms Kelly told the inquiry that the subject of the meeting had come up with Mr Lenihan, who was a close personal friend, as a result of a long phone conversation she had with Mr Gilmartin in 1989 about his Quarryvale plans. The developer had informed her that he was encountering bureaucratic difficulties in making progress on the project.

According to Ms Kelly, he went on to say that he had met the then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, and several of his ministers including Bertie Ahern, Brian Lenihan, Pádraig Flynn and Ray Burke at a meeting in Leinster House to discuss Quarryvale.

"I've met the whole lot of them in Dáil Éireann," Mr Gilmartin told her.

Ms Kelly said she specifically remembered the developer said the current Transport Minister, Séamus Brennan, was also at the meeting as she was surprised at his presence there because his constituency was not near west Dublin.

Ms Kelly told the inquiry she subsequently asked Mr Lenihan if there had been such a meeting in Leinster House as described by Mr Gilmartin.

She said: "I can remember exactly what he said: 'Oh yes. They did and I was there.'" Asked again if Mr Lenihan had confirmed that such a meeting had taken place, Ms Kelly said: "without doubt." The witness said she had also met property developer Owen O'Callaghan on several occasions whom she knew was also involved in Quarryvale. She recalled one phone conversation with the Cork-based millionaire in 1989 in which he advised her not to speak to Mr Gilmartin if he called her again. "He is out of the picture now," Mr O'Callaghan allegedly remarked. "You will only get matters confused."

Ms Kelly also described Liam Lawlor as "one of the most helpful public representatives in (her) experience." Meanwhile, former EU Commissioner and Finance Minister Ray MacSharry has conceded that it was possible that he could have met Mr Gilmartin in his constituency office in Sligo in 1987. In an earlier written statement to the tribunal, Mr MacSharry stated he had never met the property developer. Yesterday, another witness, Pádraig Leonard, a deputy principal of Grange Vocational School in Sligo, confirmed that he had met Mr Gilmartin in the former TD's clinic in Sligo.

Mr MacSharry later accepted that such a meeting could have taken place, even though he had no recollection of it.