THE leader of Democratic Left said it was "a complete surprise" to him to learn that three Workers Party properties, including its headquarters, had been owned by a company called Repsol since 1983.
Mr Proinsias De Rossa told the High Court that after he became party leader in 1988, efforts were made to sell the properties to reduce the party's mounting debts.
Mr Patrick MacEntee SC for Independent Newspapers, told him that the properties - the party headquarters at Dublin's Gardiner Place, the Thomas Ashe Hall in Cork and a site in Mornington, Co Louth - were transferred from individual members of the Workers Party to Repsol in 1983.
"I was not aware of that," said Mr De Rossa. Asked whether the Workers Party had paid rent to Repsol, Mr De Rossa replied: "Not that I am aware of."
He told Mr MacEntee that in his 10 years on the ardchomhairle, it had never come to his attention that Repsol owned three substantial properties of the Workers Party. He had understood that loans raised by the Workers Party used the party's properties as collateral, using himself and others as guarantors.
Mr MacEntee asked who would have had the power to transfer the properties to Repsol. Mr De Rossa said no one person would have had the power to make that decision without the agreement of the ardchomhairle, "so I am surprised at the information you conveyed here this morning".
Mr De Rossa said when he was re-elected to the Dail and became an MEP in 1989, he transferred his Dail allowance for a party leader of close to £100,000 and his second salary to the party but it still got deeper into debt.
He sought to reorganise the debt by selling off party headquarters but there was resistance within the party to this. There were leasing difficulties with the Cork property and because of planning restrictions on the Mornington site, it was only worth £7,000 or £8,000.
When Mr MacEntee said he must have had the titles of the properties investigated and it must have emerged that Repsol owned them, Mr De Rossa replied: "The information you revealed today is a complete surprise." He did not agree that this was because the party and Repsol were considered to be "one and the same thing".
When Mr MacEntee said the party headquarters had been sold by Repsol on June 12th, 1992, Mr De Rossa replied he had no knowledge of that as he had resigned from the Workers Party in February 1992.
Mr MacEntee recalled Mr De Rossa's evidence last week when he said that Repsol did some printing for the Workers Party, which sometimes owed money to Repsol and vice versa. As far as he knew, this was the only relationship between them.
Mr MacEntee asked who owned the premises at Gardiner Street. Mr De Rossa said he presumed it was the Workers Party. Mr MacEntee said: "You presume that?" Mr De Rossa: "Yes".
Mr MacEntee asked what other property was owned by the party. Mr De Rossa said it had a premises in Cork, Thomas Ashe Hall, which was occupied and owned by the party, and a small premises in Barrack Street, Waterford, which was used for party meetings. There was also a site in Mornington, Co Louth, with a number of derelict cottages.
There was also a premises in Northern Ireland, off the Falls Road. He was not certain it was owned by the party. Mr De Rossa said the address did not spring to mind as he put a lot of things out of his mind when he left the Workers Party.
Mr De Rossa told Mr MacEntee the party was a 32-county organisation at all times when he was a member. It had a Northern Ireland executive elected by members there and there were elected regional representatives of the ardchomhairle.
He said the party was always unified in terms of elections but in Northern Ireland, because it was operating in the British jurisdiction, it developed policies about Northern Ireland on various political and government matters.
Mr MacEntee asked if he was on the ardchomhairle from 1982 until the split in 1990. Mr De Rossa said he was appointed in February 1982 when he became a public figure as a result of being one of three Workers Party members elected to the Dail. Perhaps because of that, they elected him to the ardchomhairle at the first ardfheis following the election.
He would have been involved in meetings of the ardchomhairle. The new government was being formed at that time and, the party was involved in discussions with Fianna Fail about forming a government.