Fahey does not recall meeting

Mahon tribunal:Former Fianna Fáil minister Frank Fahey told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that he could not remember a meeting with property developer Owen O'Callaghan about plans for a national stadium in Neilstown, west Dublin, in 1991.

Mr Fahey, who was minister of state with special responsibility for youth and sport between 1987 and 1992, said he could only recall a discussion for plans to bring English football club Wimbledon to Dublin.

Mr O'Callaghan had put forward plans for a stadium at Neilstown, the tribunal had heard, in the context of acquiring retail zoning for the Quarryvale site, which he part owned with developer Tom Gilmartin at the time.

Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC, read into the record a diary entry of former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop, which contained an appointment with Mr Fahey, Owen O'Callaghan and architect Ambrose Kelly for October 31st, 1991.

She also produced a letter from Mr O'Callaghan to Mr Fahey in November, thanking him for his courtesy in relation to meeting him about the project.

"I can't ever recall any consideration being given to a national stadium in north Clondalkin," Mr Fahey said. "My recollection is that it was a stadium that was intended to house a Dublin home for Wimbledon."

Ms Dillon pointed out that plans for Wimbledon's move to Dublin did not materialise until the mid-1990s.

Mr Fahey did accept he must have had a meeting with Mr O'Callaghan but said he could not recall it until he read documents supplied to him by the tribunal yesterday.

He said he had only read the documents yesterday, although the tribunal supplied a large amount of documentation to him some time ago.

Asked if he had gone through that documentation, he said he had not.

He told Ms Dillon that "they were just left in storage". She asked if they were available to anyone else and he said they were not.

Former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Roy Donovan told the tribunal he did not remember donations of £50,000 being collected at a dinner in Cork with Albert Reynolds in March 1994.

Mr Donovan was questioned in the context of claims by businessman Tom Gilmartin that he was told by Mr O'Callaghan that he paid Mr Reynolds £150,000 after a fundraising dinner in Cork, shortly before St Patrick's Day in 1994.

Mr Gilmartin had said Mr Reynolds stayed the night in Mr O'Callaghan's house because he was "knackered" and then was collected by helicopter so he could catch a flight to New York to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

Mr Donovan told Ms Dillon that he was at a dinner in Cork on March 11th, 1994, with Mr O'Callaghan, then taoiseach Mr Reynolds, Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson and a number of Cork business people.

Ms Dillon told the tribunal that records showed that on March 14th, after the dinner, £50,000 was lodged to the Fianna Fáil bank account in Dublin, made up of cheques, bank drafts and cash. The amount was attributed to the Cork fundraising dinner. However, no individual receipts were issued.

Mr Donovan said he did not see any collection being taken on the night.