Redmond denies he had interest in arcade

The former Dublin assistant city and county manager, Mr George Redmond, last night denied he had an interest in a gaming arcade in Westmoreland Street in the city centre.

He told The Irish Times he had lent a substantial sum of money to the arcade's owner, Mr Jim Kennedy, a west Dublin businessman. "I did loan him money, but I had no interest in it," he said.

Attempts to contact Mr Kennedy to comment on his relationship with Mr Redmond were unsuccessful. A security man at the entrance to Amusement City said he did not know anybody with that name. "I've never heard of him," he added

A report on RTE radio yesterday said Mr Redmond, who is one of the key witnesses at the Flood tribunal, had put up to £100,000 into a gaming enterprise in the city while he was still serving as assistant city and county manager.

The report quoted a former partner of Mr Kennedy's in the amusement arcade as saying it was his belief Mr Redmond was a "silent partner" in the business and he had paid the former official £5,000 at his home in Castleknock, Dublin.

RTE reporter Charlie Bird said a Fianna Fail TD - whom he did not name - was a regular visitor to the Westmoreland Street arcade, always entering and leaving by a rear door behind the ESB offices in Fleet Street.

Mr Redmond has denied that he and Mr Kennedy were associates. "I just knew him," he said. However, The Irish Times understands their relationship came under scrutiny in a 1989 Garda investigation of planning in Co Dublin.

Among the matters now being examined by the Flood tribunal is Dublin County Council's decision in 1986 to buy - for £134,500 - a bungalow owned by Mr Kennedy in the Strawberry Beds, along the route of the West Link bridge.

The bungalow, known as Oaklands House, had been built some years earlier. But because only an outline planning permission had been granted in 1979, it still constituted an unauthorised development when the council bought the property.

As it happens, the house did not require to be demolished to facilitate construction of the West Link bridge. It was used as a builders' site office before being sold in 1990 for £121,000, after the bridge was completed.

The matter of Oaklands House was raised in the Dail by Mr Pat Rabbitte (Labour) in February 1990. He said it "seems extraordinary that one is expected to believe that there was no insider knowledge in that case".

Yesterday, Mr Rabbitte said he had experienced considerable difficulty in getting answers to questions about the transaction. One question he had tabled "mysteriously disappeared" from the county council's agenda on two occasions.

But Mr Redmond insisted last night that there was "nothing untoward" about the matter. National Toll Roads plc, which developed both the East Link and West Link bridges, was already interested in acquiring the house, he said.

"We made a CPO [compulsory purchase order] which covered that house and its curtilage, because the fact is that you can't build over someone else's property - and the bridge was going to go over part of it," Mr Redmond said.

"I don't know why it was ever sold; that happened after I left. But with only one leg of the bridge built and plans being advanced now for another leg, running alongside it, they'll have to buy it back again," he maintained.

Mr Brian Lenihan TD (FF) confirmed yesterday that he had been interested in buying the property in 1990 because he had always wanted to live in the Strawberry Beds. But he felt uncomfortable about it and decided not to proceed.

The house was first offered for sale by private treaty, rather than public auction, and Mr Lenihan said he felt unhappy about this as the vendor was the county council. He had also heard some "dark rumours" about its history.

When it was finally offered for sale by auction, through Hamilton Osborne King, Mr Lenihan said he and his wife had bid for the property, which stands on an acre, but it went above their price. "We got a much nicer house later."