Mystery over worries about Garda inquiry

The questioning returned once more to the controversial house of Mr Redmond's businessman friend, Mr Jim Kennedy, in the Strawberry…

The questioning returned once more to the controversial house of Mr Redmond's businessman friend, Mr Jim Kennedy, in the Strawberry Beds in west Dublin. The house had no planning permission, which meant it was virtually worthless in resale terms. It was also affected by the plans of National Toll Roads to build the Westlink bridge nearby.

Given its illegal planning status, the county council could have ordered the demolition of the house. Equally, NTR could have bought it - in fact, this was the original plan. Yet neither of these things happened.

Instead, Mr Kennedy's architect applied for retention of planning permission for the house in 1986, a move which would have increased its value considerably. Ultimately, the council bought the property for a considerable sum, even though it had no planning permission. Once again, the taxpayer footed the bill.

Mr Redmond was a regular visitor to Mr Kennedy's house but said he knew nothing about its planning problems. So why then did the Criminal Assets Bureau find the original planning file for the property in Mr Redmond's house when it raided it in February last year, 10 years after he retired from the county council?

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"When I was leaving my job, I packed some stuff in my bag and this was included," he explained, before going on to say that his interest in the file stemmed from a desire to buy a site adjoining Mr Kennedy's home.

Mr Kennedy deserves credit for being the only person to emerge as having extracted money from a normally thrifty Mr Redmond. Whereas builders and politicians were queuing up to make payments to Mr Redmond, Mr Kennedy got a loan of at least £70,000 from Mr Redmond which was never repaid. For that reason alone, the appearance at the tribunal of this reclusive amusement arcade owner should be of great interest.

Mr Tom Roche, the chairman of NTR, was another friend of Mr Redmond. Mr Redmond said the late Mr Roche gave him a cheque for £5,000 in 1989 and another for £10,000 in 1997. The money was paid for information he provided on possible landfill sites, he insisted, and had nothing to do with the Kennedy house.

Then there was the house builder, Mr Tom Brennan, whose name has already arisen at the tribunal. Mr Redmond said he got more than £15,000 from Mr Brennan in 1988 but the payments ceased early in the following year when Mr Redmond heard that his name had come up in the course of a Garda investigation into planning corruption.

An unnamed county councillor gave Mr Redmond a "confidential tip-off" which had the effect of "freezing all my activities," he told the tribunal. So a worried Mr Redmond "cut the umbilical cord" with Mr Brennan.

He was questioned repeatedly on what his worries about investigation were. After all, Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, pointed out, Mr Redmond's evidence is that he has done nothing wrong. He just gave people advice and, out of the generosity of their hearts, they gave something back to him.

Mr Redmond agreed he gave "consultancy advice" but was unable to elaborate what else worried him. The mere fact that the gardai were inquiring about him was enough to scare him.

Mr Justice Flood suggested they might have been looking into his car tax.

Mr Redmond looked offended. "Your worship, I think that's unnecessary," he replied.