Ahern accused of ‘rent boy’ blackmail plot

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was allegedly behind an attempted “blackmail” plot in the 1990s relating to a former junior minister and rent boys in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

Businessman Tom Gilmartin, 73, claimed Mr Ahern sent a delegation of two ministers to the junior minister in connection with compromising photographs and sex offences involving rent boys in Phoenix Park.

Shortly before the incident, the junior minister had been reported in the media as having misgivings about the granting of tax designations, according to Mr Gilmartin.