Doctors declare Reynolds unable to give evidence

FORMER taoiseach Albert Reynolds will not be questioned by the Mahon tribunal as doctors say he is unfit to attend.

The 76-year-old, who retired from politics in 2002, has been diagnosed as suffering from a deterioration of his mental faculties by his GP and four consultants, two of whom were appointed by the tribunal.

“Their essentially unanimous opinion is that Mr Reynolds has significant cognitive impairment which renders him unable to give evidence at this time or in the near future,” tribunal chairman Alan Mahon told yesterday’s hearing.

Judge Mahon said the tribunal reserved the right to review the situation, but as the hearings are now on a six-week break and are due to end in October, it seems unlikely Mr Reynolds’ testimony will ever be heard.

Three previous scheduled appearances by him were cancelled. He was due to respond to claims by property developer Tom Gilmartin that funds he was given for Fianna Fáil while he was taoiseach in 1992-94 disappeared, that he made an unexplained trip to the Bahamas in the Government jet and that he interfered in the planning process to thwart Mr Gilmartin.

Cork property developer Owen O’Callaghan told yesterday’s hearing that he had Mr Reynolds’ support during this period when he was trying to develop an all-purpose national sports stadium at Neilstown, west Dublin. However, he did not get the backing of then finance minister Bertie Ahern who, it emerged yesterday, met Mr O’Callaghan’s main financial backer for the project behind Mr O’Callaghan’s back. Mr Ahern, who would later propose his own stadium, the doomed “Bertie Bowl”, met with Bill O’Connor & on a trip to the US in March 1994. But although Mr O’Callaghan knew of plans for such a meeting, when he heard no report from it, either from Mr O’Connor or Mr Ahern, whom he met two weeks later, he presumed it did not take place.

In November that year, Mr O’Callaghan and Bill O’Connor jointly met Mr Ahern to discuss the stadium proposal and Mr O’Connor and Mr Ahern acted like strangers. Mr O’Callaghan said he remembered the meeting clearly because it was on this occasion when Mr Ahern unceremoniously wrote off the proposal, telling Mr O’Callaghan he wasting his time seeking government support.

Mr O’Callaghan was shown an answer Mr Ahern gave the Dáil in 1994 when questioned about his US trip in which he recorded meeting Mr O’Connor. Yet in correspondence with the tribunal, Mr Ahern recalled the November meeting in vague terms, saying he met an American gentleman whom “he believed was called William O’Connor”.

Mr O’Callaghan was also shown a letter from Bill O’Connor to Mr Ahern after the November meeting. Mr O’Connor wrote that he would keep Mr Ahern updated on progress with the stadium proposal.

Mr O’Callaghan said he was “completely and totally” surprised by this evidence. He said it was possible when Mr Ahern dealt with Mr O’Connor that, “Mr Ahern might have been talking about his Irish national stadium. Maybe he wasn’t talking about our stadium at all”.