Lawyers could not get their heads around corruption claims, says Gilmartin

FORMER property developer Tom Gilmartin told the Mahon Planning Tribunal yesterday how lawyers had difficulty “getting their heads round” his allegations of corruption in the planning process.

“At times they were looking at me with disbelief,” he told Paul Sreenan SC, for developer Owen O’Callaghan, his former business partner whom Mr Gilmartin alleges funded a corruption ring.

Mr Gilmartin also claims Fianna Fáil councillor Finbar Hanrahan from Lucan in west-Dublin demanded £100,000 in cash — with £50,000 up front — to support the Quarryvale development being proposed by the Sligo-born, Luton-based businessman.