O’Callaghan: I made an error in not meeting with Ahern

FORMER taoiseach Albert Reynolds wanted to give £75 million in lottery funds to a national stadium proposed by Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan in 1992, as long as the then finance minister Bertie Ahern agreed.

Mr O’Callaghan told the Mahon tribunal, however, that he erred by approaching other government ministers long before Mr Ahern, who then shot down the idea.

“I made a mistake,” Mr O’Callaghan said. “I went to the minister for sport at the time, I went to the minister for the environment, I went to the taoiseach on quite a few occasions but I never went to the minister for finance officially until November 1994.”