Gilmartin 'told Ahern about 1989 extortion demand'

Property Developer Tom Gilmartin has told the Mahon Tribunal that he informed the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in 1989 about a £5m extortion demand he was subjected to in Leinster House that same year.

Mr Gilmartin made the claim during his 21st day in the witness stand at the tribunal today.

He has already told the tribunal how an unidentified man approached him after a meeting he held with senior government ministers in Leinster House in 1989 and told him to deposit £5m in an offshore bank account for Fianna Fáil.

The meeting had been arranged to discuss Mr Gilmartin’s planned Quarryvale development in west Dublin.

Mr Gilmartin said today that he also told Mr Ahern in 1989 about interference in land deals he was involved in and demands for money made by former Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor.

Mr Gilmartin said the Taoiseach, who was Minister for Labour at the time, told him he would look into the matter and asked Fianna Fáil Councillor Joe Burke to meet him to discuss the situation.

Mr Gilmartin said Mr Burke did subsequently come to see him and seemed to have a general knowledge of the problems the property developer was facing.

Under questioning from his own lawyer today, Mr Gilmartin also denied that he had his own agenda in giving evidence to the tribunal.

He said if he had a vendetta against certain politicians, he would have been speaking to the media regularly for the past 20 years.

Instead, he said, he had only decided to give evidence to the Mahon Tribunal after former Government minister Padraig Flynn claimed on the Late, Late Show in 1998 that he (Mr Gilmartin) and his wife were not well.

Mr Gilmartin said Mr Flynn implied that he was mentally ill and he felt insulted by the politician’s comments.

He said it was not in his nature to bring people down, even though he felt his complaints about corruption in Ireland were completely ignored by the political establishment.