Air chief: Reynolds ordered diversion

DURING his St Patrick’s Day visit to the US in 1994 former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds ordered the government jet to make an unscheduled flight from Nassau to Freeport in the Bahamas, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

Brigadier General Ralph James, who heads the Air Corps, confirmed the flight schedule had been altered at Mr Reynolds’s request during a 10-day trip.

At the tribunal, developer Tom Gilmartin had alleged being told about a Fianna Fáil fundraising trip to the US when more than $1 million was raised following the peace deal in the North.

Only about $70,000 of this arrived in Dublin, Mr Gilmartin said his sources told him, with the remainder “falling out of a plane and drifting down to the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands” and ending up in accounts in Liechtenstein and the Dutch Antillies.

Mr Gilmartin had also said developer Owen O’Callaghan had told him he had given Mr Reynolds £150,000 in a bedroom following a dinner in Cork on March 11, 1994, shortly before the Taoiseach left Cork by helicopter to return to Dublin. Both Mr Reynolds and Mr O’Callaghan deny the claim.

Brig Gen James said Air Corps flight records showed a Dauphin helicopter picked up Mr Reynolds and a Mr J Kennedy in Clonskeagh on March 11, 1994, and had flown them to Cork. The flight had returned from Cork at 12.30am on March 12, and the Taoiseach and his party left in the government jet for the US about 5pm.

Brig Gen James said a number of stops had been scheduled for the jet. The day before the jet was due to return to Ireland, a change was requested by the Taoiseach. This had not been scheduled before the jet had left Dublin. The request was for the jet to fly from Nassau in the Bahamas to Freeport for a six-hour stop. The jet then returned from Freeport to Dublin.