A company controlled by Cement Roadstone Holdings Ltd made payments to a business owned by the family of former Taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey, according to a submission to the Flood planning tribunal.
The submission has been made by the Blessington Heritage Trust, which is seeking to have the tribunal investigate the sale of State land at Glen Ding Wood, in Blessington, Co Wicklow, to Road stone Dublin Ltd (a CRH subsidiary), and its subsequent rezoning by Wicklow County Council.
It has asked the tribunal to inquire into the alleged "favourable treatment" shown by the State and Wicklow County Council to the cement company.
Payments totalling £18,150 were made by Irish Industrial Explosives Ltd, an associate company of CRH, to Geo Engineering, which was owned by Mr Conor Haughey and Ms Eimear Haughey, The Irish Times has learned.
Geo Engineering was incorporated in October 1982 and was dissolved in the early 1990s by the Companies Office. The payments were made between January 1983 and March 1984 and were for "geo-technical consultancy and surveying services", according to a spokesman for CRH. The company was not aware that it or any of its subsidiaries had employed the services of any other companies linked to Mr Haughey or members of his family, he said.
The Blessington Heritage Trust has told the tribunal, which resumes today, that the 147 acres of land at Glen Ding Woods, including sand and gravel deposits, was worth more than £50 million, but was sold by the State for £1.25 million.
An interested party who discovered the pending sale by accident was told by the Department of Energy the land had been sold a full six months before the sale was officially completed.
It has also emerged that a tract of land beside Glen Ding Woods, which was bought by Roadstone Dublin Ltd in 1969, was not registered in its name until recently. The company received planning permission to quarry the land in 1970, but Land Registry records have shown that the land remained in the ownership of the Department of Agriculture, according to the submission.
In a statement, the company said "due to an administrative oversight, some 70 acres of land purchased by the company during the 1970s were not subsequently registered in Roadstone's name. The Chief State Solicitor's Office has confirmed that these lands are in the full ownership of the company and the lands have been reregistered."
The Blessington Heritage Trust has also stated that the late Mr Des Traynor, who was chairman of CRH when the purchase was made, operated the Ansbacher deposits from CRH headquarters at 42 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, at that time. The Dunnes Payments to Politicians Tribunal was told the Fitzwilliam Square address appeared on the heading of instructions which Mr Traynor sent to the Guinness & Mahon Bank regarding the Ansbacher accounts.
Following Mr Traynor's death in 1994, the tribunal was told, the files relating to the secret accounts were removed from CRH headquarters.