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.

Mr Murphy went on to defend the use of the scheme for Tallaght Town Centre, as it had huge residential areas “with very little else” by way of facilities.

Former property developer Tom Gilmartin claims his arch rival and former partner Owen O’Callaghan “bragged” to him of giving Mr Ahern a total of about £100,000 for political favours, which included £70,000 for two other projects.

Mr Ahern and Mr O’Callaghan have strongly denied the allegations.

Disputes arose between Mr Gilmartin and Mr O’Callaghan over the development of their Quarryvale project, a rival project to Blanchardstown and also in west Dublin. Mr Gilmartin, based in London, ran into financial trouble and was declared bankrupt in Britain. Mr O’Callaghan took over the project which became the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.

The push for tax designation for Blanchardstown under the urban renewal scheme began in 1988. John Corcoran’s company Green Property, that built the centre, launched a vigorous and sustained campaign.

Lobbying intensified when the Haughey government granted a special tax incentive to Tallaght Town Centre, which was announced in Ray MacSharry’s Budget for 1988.

Documents shown to the tribunal revealed Mr Corcoran wrote to a number of senior Fianna Fáil politicians, including Mr Haughey, seeking equal status with Tallaght for his Blanchardstown venture. Mr Corcoran had already lobbied Tánaiste Brian Lenihan and Finance Minister Ray MacSharry.

Replying on March 31, 1989, Mr Haughey told Mr Corcoran if additional areas were to be considered under the urban renewal scheme, Blanchardstown would get “every consideration”.

Former Environment Minister Padraig Flynn, who had principal responsibility for tax designation, in a reply to the then Foreign Minister Brian Lenihan — a TD for Dublin West — said he was “still considering the matter”.

Tribunal lawyer Pat Quinn SC asked Mr Murphy if the Department of the Environment had a change of heart between late 1988 and early 1989. Writing to Mr MacSharry in January 1989, Mr Flynn was saying he believed it “appropriate” to extend the urban renewal scheme generally.

Mr Murphy replied that the Department of Finance was consistent in being opposed to extending the scheme. He said public finances were then in a very bad way. To give tax designation status would effectively mean to cut taxes.

Colm Ó hOisín SC, for Mr Ahern, suggested he had changed his story on numerous occasions.

Insisting that his story remained “the same”, Mr Gilmartin said he had been the victim of “lying spin” recently in a number of newspapers.

Challenged that he had a taste for the sensational, Mr Gilmartin said to the uninitiated his allegations about politicians receiving corrupt payments may have seemed to be sensational but to him they were common knowledge.

EU ambassador to Washington John Bruton, a former Fine Gael leader, is due to testify today amid claims he was told a party councillor was demanding bribes for his Dublin Co Council vote on planning matters.