O’Callaghan unable to recall Reynolds meetings

CORK property developer Owen O’Callaghan has claimed he is unable to recall the purpose of two meetings he held with former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1990.

Entries in the diary of Mr Reynolds which were revealed at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday record the former Fianna Fáil leader meeting Mr O’Callaghan twice in 1990.

However, the millionaire businessman was adamant that any such meeting with Mr Reynolds — the then Minister for Finance — had nothing to do with his role in the development of a controversial shopping at Quarryvale in west Dublin in the early 1990s which was being spearheaded by developer, Tom Gilmartin.

Mr O’Callaghan told the planning inquiry that he had no recollection of either meeting with Mr Reynolds but accepted they had taken place.

The tribunal heard that a civil engineer, Kiaran O’Malley, had noted in a report in early 1990 that Mr O’Callaghan had agreed to lobby Government ministers on the basis that the only hope for advancing the Quarryvale project was to obtain a special zoning designation. Mr Gilmartin had earlier told the inquiry that he had asked Mr O’Callaghan to lobby politicians who were in Cork for a meeting.

The developer also admitted that he was unable to explain why he was recorded in a diary as having a meeting with political lobbyist, Frank Dunlop, on June 8, 1990. He had repeatedly told the inquiry that he only met Mr Dunlop for the first time in February 1991. Mr O’Callaghan agreed that no documentary evidence existed to support his claim.

He also rejected the allegation that he was seen meeting both Mr Dunlop and Bertie Ahern in Dáil Éireann in 1989. “That is a total lie,” he remarked.

Mr Gilmartin had claimed he had seen the developer in conversation with Mr Ahern — who was Minister for Labour at the time — and Mr Dunlop in a corner of Leinster House.