Property developer Owen O'Callaghan has told the Mahon Tribunal that then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds favoured lottery funding of £75m for a national stadium project in 1992.
Mr O'Callaghan said the money was promised subject to the agreement of then Minister for Finance Bertie Ahern.
Owen O'Callaghan said the idea of a stadium in Neilstown in west Dublin began as a way of finding an alternative use for the site since its zoning for a town centre was being transferred to Quarryvale.
Mr O'Callaghan said he believes it was Mr Reynolds who introduced US financiers Chilton and O'Connor to the project.
They proposed an all purpose 40,000-seater stadium with sliding roof and floor that would cater for 29 different uses.
Mr O'Callaghan said it was estimated that the stadium would cost £60m to build and make a profit of £500,000 a year but that would not be enough to cover interest on the debt.
He said that at a meeting in April 1992 Mr Reynolds said he would back National Lottery funding of £3m a year for 25 years at which time ownership would go to the State.
But Mr O'Callaghan said this promise was not concrete and was subject to the approval of Bertie Ahern.
Mr O'Callaghan was asked about a letter to an FAI official in February 1992 saying the ‘present political situation may be even more favourable’.
He said this could refer to the fact that Mr Reynolds had become Taoiseach but also the fact that soccer was popular at the time.
