Burke 'golden handshake' meeting a 'fabrication'

A former solicitor to developer Tom Gilmartin said there was never a meeting in his office at which a golden handshake was arranged for former minister for foreign affairs Ray Burke.

Séamus Maguire told the Mahon tribunal that he did not see developer Owen O'Callaghan falling from a broom cupboard during a visit to the toilet.

Mr Gilmartin had alleged that Mr Maguire had told him Mr Burke was to get between £500,000 and £750,000 to resign his position in 1997 and "forestall" the establishment of the planning tribunal.

He had said the deal was arranged in the offices of Mr Maguire and involved a consortium of developers, including JMSE and Michael Bailey. He was to be paid to "go quietly", Mr Gilmartin had said. Counsel for the tribunal Pat Quinn SC asked Mr Maguire if the story was a complete fabrication. Mr Maguire responded "absolutely".

Mr Gilmartin had also told the tribunal that during a break in a meeting about the Quarryvale development in the early 1990s, he had gone to "the gents" with Mr Maguire and that Mr O'Callaghan had fallen out of a broom cupboard while they were talking.

Mr Maguire, who acted for Mr Gilmartin from 1987 to 1996, said he did not recall the incident. However, he did recall Mr Gilmartin complaining that Mr O'Callaghan was "ear-wigging" on them on an occasion when he had attended a meeting in Allied Irish Banks.

Mr Quinn also listed a series of events about which Mr Gilmartin said he talked to Mr Maguire, including his payment to Fianna Fáil of £50,000 through former minister for the environment Pádraig Flynn. Mr Maguire denied he had been told of any of the incidents.

He denied that he had been negligent in his handling of a deal struck between Mr Gilmartin and Mr O'Callaghan in 1989. Under the deal, Mr Quinn said, Mr Gilmartin would pay £800,000 to Mr O'Callaghan for an option to buy land at Neilstown west Dublin from Dublin Corporation, another £2.7 million if he took up the option and a further £2.7 million to the council.

If he did not take up the option, he would lose his £800,000 and his own lands at Quarryvale would be "sterilised" for at least five years, Mr Quinn said.