Goodman to appear at tribunal

Mahon Tribunal: Beef baron Mr Larry Goodman is to return to the world of the tribunals next month, 11 years after the beef tribunal completed its investigations of his business affairs.

Mr Goodman is one of 22 witnesses which the Mahon planning tribunal plans to call in connection with its investigation of a controversial land deal at Coolamber near Lucan, Co Dublin, which also involved former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor.

The businessman has supplied the tribunal with crucial documents which show that Mr Lawlor, along with Mr Jim Kennedy and Mr John Caldwell, was actively involved in purchasing the Coolamber land, in spite of the politician's repeated denials.

The documents supplied by Mr Goodman and by solicitor Mr Noel Smyth show that Mr Lawlor received an offshore payment of £350,000 for his work on the Coolamber deal. His role in the project was to raise money to buy the lands, which he did through a loan from Mr Goodman, which was channelled through one of Mr Lawlor's companies, Advanced Proteins.

Mr Lawlor and Mr Kennedy were initially allocated a 41.3 per cent share of the project, with Mr Caldwell taking up the remaining 17.3 per cent. However, after Mr Goodman's loan was paid off, the shareholding was revised and Mr Lawlor was allocated 25 per cent. Mr Lawlor's role featured in a 2001 Supreme Court case, in which the then Chief Justice, Mr Ronan Keane, found that the politician's denial of involvement was "less than candid".

Another judge, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly, dismissed Mr Lawlor's case with the comment that he had "patently defied" the court's order and had sworn one affidavit "that is demonstrably so incomplete as to entail deliberate deception".

But according to Mr Lawlor, none of what was proposed in the documents "came to pass" and the lands were ultimately disposed of without reference to him.

Coolamber is the first of seven land transactions the tribunal intends to investigate in which it believes Mr Lawlor was secretly involved with Mr Kennedy and Mr Caldwell. Tribunal lawyers believe Mr Lawlor received substantial payments offshore arising from his involvement in some of these transactions.

The former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond, is said to have provided advice or otherwise facilitated some of the deals by approving the installation of services which would increase the value of the lands.

Six of the deals, including Coolamber, involved land near Mr Lawlor's home in Lucan and the seventh was in Baldoyle.