Flynn returns to tribunal to answer Gilmartin claims

FORMER European commissioner Padraig Flynn is due to return to the Mahon Tribunal tomorrow, arising out of a IR£50,000 payment he received from developer Tom Gilmartin nearly 20 years ago.

Mr Gilmartin, who initiated the Quarryvale development in west Dublin in the late 1980s, said he wrote a cheque for the amount as a donation to the Fianna Fáil party in 1989. He said he gave it to Mr Flynn but left the payee section of the cheque blank.

Mr Flynn, who was then environment minister, was an EU commissioner in Brussels in 1998 when news broke of the tribunal’s probe into the payment a decade previously.

The high-profile politician’s appearance on the Late Late Show — when he commented on Mr Gilmartin and his wife — prompted Mr Gilmartin to decide to co-operate with the tribunal.

Next Friday, former taoiseach Albert Reynolds is due to testify about allegations he was involved in granting special tax designation to an Athlone, Co Westmeath project promoted by Cork-based developer Owen O’Callaghan. It has been alleged by Mr Gilmartin that Mr Reynolds forced Bertie Ahern — who was then finance minister — to sign the order the day before the government left office.