A former doorman at the Stardust club has said he was not "put up" to say that he had opened the fire exits on the night of the fire in 1981 and said that ''there was no conspiracy on my part’’.
Michael Kavanagh was giving evidence for a third day at the inquests into the deaths of the 48 people in the 1981 blaze.
He was 20 years old at the time of the fire.
The Dublin District Coroner's Court has heard how he had initially told his friend at around 3am on the morning of the fire that the doors had been padlocked, before telling journalists outside the club that he had opened the doors on the night in question before the disco had started.
He also went on RTÉ’s Today Tonight programme saying he had unlocked the doors. On 16 February, he told gardaí that he had opened them, but three days later he retracted the statement, saying he had not in fact unlocked them.
Today, during some robust questioning, Bernard Condon SC, representing families of the victims asked Mr Kavanagh what went on during that three-day period for him to change his garda statement.
He asked the witness if he was "put up to it" in making the statements that he had unlocked the doors.
"No", Mr Kavanagh replied.
He was also asked how he had gone from telling his friend, Michael O’Toole, that the doors were locked to telling the media shortly after that he had unlocked them. He said he did not know why he did what he did, and said "there was no conspiracy on my part".
Mr Condon said that Mr Kavanagh had "put people off down the wrong track" in initially saying he had unlocked the doors and that he allowed "a fog of deception to swirl around this entire case".
He said everyone has been "playing catch up trying to find out what the doors were like that night" adding "you led them on a merry dance".
'Consistently dishonest account'
Mr Condon also said he would give Mr Kavanagh "one last chance" to explain what he was doing coming up with that "consistently dishonest account which was highly helpful to the Butterly group, the Butterly people and the doormen".
"What was going on?" he asked.
"I don't know what was going on," replied Mr Kavanagh.
Earlier in the proceedings, Mr Kavanagh said he does not have a memory of having keys of any sort with him when he went to Mr O'Toole's house in the hours after the fire at around 3am.
The court has heard that in the course of a conversation in the kitchen, Mr Kavanagh said the doors were locked.
Mr Condon told the court that Mr O'Toole will say that Mr Kavanagh took keys from his pocket as he was saying "they couldn't get out, the doors were padlocked," and that it was Mr O’Toole’s view that they were the keys of the Stardust.
Mr Condon today asked Mr Kavanagh if he had any comment to make on that.
"None, whatsoever," Mr Kavanagh replied.
The court heard that he had said he had left the keys in a drawer earlier in the night.
Mr Kavanagh’s direct evidence has now concluded.
The inquests continue tomorrow.
