The Moriarty tribunal is inquiring into the controversial sale of Carysfort College a decade ago. The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, confirmed last night that his Department gave its files on the sale to the tribunal last August, following a request from its legal team.
The tribunal is investigating the sale of the property by Mr Robert "Pino" Harris, a Dublin truck importer, to University College Dublin in 1990.
Mr Harris bought the property for between £6.25 and £6.5 million in the summer of 1990 and sold it to UCD for £8 million in December of that year.
At the time the opposition accused the government and Mr Charles Haughey of putting pressure on UCD to buy the site from Mr Harris, who they claimed was a friend of Mr Haughey's.
They questioned the role of then minister for education, Ms O'Rourke, in the sale and accused Mr Haughey of acting in an improper fashion. Mr Haughey has denied that Mr Harris was an associate of his.
In a Dail debate in December 1991 Mr Haughey said the allegations about Carysfort were "unfounded and slanderous, false and groundless".
Ms O'Rourke told the Dail in 1991 that all procedures on Carysfort and its purchase were strictly adhered to. It was excellent value for money, she said, and was never available to her for less than £8 million. This position was supported by the Department of Education's accounting officer at the time.
However, a 1992 report from the Committee for Public Accounts on the sale said it could not reconcile this position with the fact that Mr Harris bought it for between £6.25 and £6.5 million.
At the time, controversy arose about a meeting in October attended by Mr Haughey, Mr Laurence Crowley of the UCD Graduate Business School and Ms O'Rourke. Mr Haughey said he did not deal with the sale at this meeting, but instead said it was about creating extra places at UCD.
At the time, Mr Jim Higgins, Fine Gael spokesman on education, said Mr Haughey had failed to inform the Cabinet that the State Valuation Office had independently valued Carysfort at £3.8 million. He said Mr Haughey had handed Mr Harris a profit of £1.5 million. Mr Haughey strongly denied this.
He said: "I have very good friends in [UCD] president [Patrick] Masterson and Mr Crowley" and the business school would be benefiting the State long after "these petty, slanderous allegations have been consigned to the dustbin".
In a written answer to a parliamentary question from Mr Billy Timmins TD of Fine Gael - released last night - Dr Woods said last August his Department gave the tribunal "the papers held relating to the closure and subsequent purchase of Carysfort College" by UCD.
The Moriarty tribunal is investigating payments to Mr Haughey and a former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry. Where payments are discovered, the tribunal then examines the circumstances and motives behind them. There has been no mention of Mr Harris or the Carysfort sale in the course of the tribunal's hearings to date.
It has already heard of several donations to Mr Haughey and withdrawals from the party leader's account held with AIB.