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No recollection of sports meeting - Fahey

Mahon Tribunal - Frank Fahey in evidence
Mahon Tribunal - Frank Fahey in evidence

Former Minister of State Frank Fahey has said he did not recall meeting with developer Owen O'Callaghan to discuss a national sports centre on a site at Neilstown, west Dublin.

In evidence to the Mahon Tribunal, Mr Fahey, who was Junior Minister with responsibility for Sports, admitted that documentation showed he had received a letter from a local councillor and had a meeting with Mr O'Callaghan on the issue in 1991.

He said he had not read the tribunal documentation which he had put in storage, but had read some papers today he obtained from the inquiry's legal team.

Mr Fahey said his recollection was that he met with Mr O'Callaghan about the possibility of Wimbledon FC moving from London to Dublin.

He agreed to return his documentation to the tribunal.

Earlier, Fianna Fáil fundraiser Roy Donovan said he did not see any donations being gathered when then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds attended a private house for dinner with Cork businessman in 1994.

He was told that bank accounts showed that £50,000 was lodged to Fianna Fáil's accounts on the Monday following the Friday night dinner which developer Owen O'Callaghan attended.

The tribunal is investigating Tom Gilmartin's allegation that Mr O'Callaghan told him he gave Mr Reynolds £150,000 when the Taoiseach stayed in his Cork home in March 1994.

Mr Donovan said Mr Reynolds was a 'night owl' and he thought he would have driven straight home after the dinner.

He also said it was the practice that fundraising or exchange of favours would be avoided in the presence of a Taoiseach or Minister.

Report corruption

Tom Gilmartin earlier said rival developer Owen O'Callaghan told him of a £30,000 payment to Bertie Ahern even though Mr Gilmartin had threatened previously to call in the fraud squad about corruption.

Mr Gilmartin also told the Mahon Tribunal that the date of Mr O'Callaghan's revelation must have been in April 1993 even though in his formal statement he said it happened in 1992.

Mr Gilmartin says Mr O'Callaghan told him of the payment following a meeting with AIB officials.

Mr Gilmartin was worried that the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre was going to get tax designation which would affect Quarryvale.

He claims Mr O'Callaghan left the meeting and returned to say he had it from the 'horse's mouth'  that this would not happen.

Afterwards Mr Gilmartin says Mr O'Callaghan told him he got the assurance from Minister for Finance Bertie Ahern and that it had cost him £30,000.

In answer to tribunal counsel Mr Gilmartin admitted that he had threatened to call in the fraud squad about alleged corruption in relation to Quarryvale just weeks earlier.

He had also threatened to contact the press the previous December.

When Mr Gilmartin asked why Mr O'Callaghan would have told him of a corrupt payment Mr Gilmartin said 'my nose was being rubbed in it'.

Mr Gilmartin said he had been declared bankrupt the previous October and that no-one would heed or believe him.

He also admitted there was no record of a conversation about tax designation in the minutes of  the meeting with AIB officials.