Bertie took payment when tax bid was already blocked

A FORMER Department of Finance principal officer Liam Murphy told the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that a special tax status for Blanchardstown Shopping Centre had been ruled out in 1990, three years before Taoiseach Bertie Ahern allegedly received £30,000 for blocking the centre’s bid.

The retired civil servant went on to tell the tribunal that a tax designation for Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in west Dublin was “always off the agenda”.

He said that tax designation status was intended to support urban renewal, not the development of satellite towns.