Leinster House layout probe

THE Mahon Tribunal is to examine floor plans of Leinster House in the 1980s to decide if a description Tom Gilmartin gave of a meeting there is consistent with the layout of the building at the time.

Mr Gilmartin has given the tribunal a detailed account of the corridors he passed through, the lift he travelled in and offices he was brought into in February 1989 when he says he met nine government ministers, including Bertie Ahern, before being approached by a mystery man who demanded £5 million from him to support his retail park plans.

Conor Maguire SC, representing Mr Ahern, told the tribunal such a physical description did not exist in Leinster House and said there were plans to prove it. Judge Alan Mahon said the tribunal would consult the Office of Public Works to have the plans made available for examination.

Mr Maguire also challenged Mr Gilmartin’s account of his first meeting with Mr Ahern, which Mr Gilmartin said took place in Mr Ahern’s Department of Labour offices in Mespil Road in October 1988.

Mr Gilmartin said he was greeted by a security guard who told him he was a former garda and showed him to Mr Ahern’s office on the first or second floor, but Mr Maguire said yesterday no ex-garda was ever employed at the offices.

The closest anyone came to that description were two former soldiers, but one had retired from the offices in 1977 and the other in 1987, before the meeting took place. “He must have been a ghost then,” said Mr Gilmartin.

Mr Maguire also said Mr Ahern’s offices at the time were neither on the first or second floor. Mr Gilmartin replied that the counsel was “splitting hairs”.

The two men also clashed over Mr Gilmartin’s assertion that Mr Ahern asked him for a FF donation.