ANALYSIS:Bertie Ahern met US financiers in Los Angeles airport in March 1993, writes Colm Keena
BERTIE AHERN would no doubt argue that it is unfair but the tribunal will in time examine the evidence he is now giving and compare it with the lodgements to his bank accounts that were the subject of such exhaustive inquiry over the past number of years.
Bluntly put, the examination of his personal finances was to see if any payments by developer Owen O'Callaghan could be identified. The evidence now being taken is to explore whether Ahern did anything that would prompt O'Callaghan to make any payment. Both men deny any payments were made.
Ahern was asked in 2003 about his meetings with O'Callaghan and persons linked to him and his Quarryvale project. Ahern said in correspondence that he met O'Callaghan in March and November 1994, and in early 1996. In later correspondence he said he also met O'Callaghan in 1998.
He couldn't recall the March 1994 meeting but now appears to accept that he and O'Callaghan discussed the issue of tax designation. Ahern was minister for finance at the time and the department was against giving tax designation to Quarryvale or its rival development at Blanchardstown. One of the allegations being investigated is that Ahern was given money for blocking tax designation for Blanchardstown.
At the second 1994 meeting Ahern met O'Callaghan and William O'Connor, of US financial firm Chilton O'Connor, which was working for O'Callaghan. The men discussed O'Callaghan's idea of building a sports stadium in Neilstown.
Neilstown and its residents are the real losers of the Quarryvale saga. The town centre that was to have been built in Neilstown ended up being built at Quarryvale. The late Liam Lawlor, who was receiving money from the Quarryvale developers, was sensitive to the potential this had to create uproar in the Neilstown area, and suggested the stadium project to O'Callaghan. The project was publicised and was talked about for a few years, but never happened. In order to be viable it required state backing.
In his 2003 response to the tribunal, Ahern failed to mention that the lobbyist and self- confessed maker of corrupt payments, Frank Dunlop, had sent him an outline of the stadium plan in December 1993. He also failed to mention a meeting in Los Angeles airport in March 1993, at which the project was discussed with representatives of Chilton O'Connor. He also failed to mention the detailed analysis of the stadium project sent in to the Department of Finance by Chilton O'Connor in August 1994, prior to the November 1994 meeting with O'Callaghan and O'Connor.
By the time of the 1996 meeting Ahern was leader of the opposition. O'Callaghan, he said, dropped into his office with Dunlop, and gave him an update on the stadium project.
At the 1998 meeting, by which time Ahern was taoiseach, he told O'Callaghan he wasn't in favour of his stadium project, as he had a sports stadium plan of his own.
Ahern said the meeting in Los Angeles was hastily arranged during a trip by him to San Diego, for St Patrick's Day, and that the stadium project was simply mentioned. The tribunal has found documentation from Lawlor's files which shows a fax going from Chilton O'Connor to Dunlop in Dublin, two days before the airport meeting, seeking an update on the stadium project.
Liam Lawlor's son, Niall Lawlor, was working for the US firm at the time and a fax from Lawlor to his son has also been discovered. It was sent prior to the airport meeting and updates Niall Lawlor on matters to do with the stadium project.
From yesterday's evidence it would appear Ahern first told O'Callaghan in 1998 he wasn't in favour of his stadium project. When he first came to this view, is not clear.
Also, the evidence shows that then taoiseach Albert Reynolds indicated his backing for the £50 million project to Chilton O'Connor in Los Angeles in 1993.
However Ahern, then minister for finance, said Reynolds didn't discuss the matter with him.