February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
He got his chance before the Mahon Tribunal in Dublin Castle last week.
But during more than five hours of sometimes rigorous cross examination, the taoiseach’s answers did not sweep away uncertainty over the nature of a meeting he reportedly attended in Leinster House in February 1989, a gathering that centered on London-based developer Tom Gilmartin.
Ahern stated to the tribunal in writing a few months ago that he did not believe he had met with Gilmartin at the meeting, or any meeting as described by Gilmartin.
“It is my firm belief that I did not attend such a meeting,” Ahern stated in his written submission.
His oral testimony to the tribunal last Wednesday took a step back from that position.
Ahern conceded that he may have met with Gilmartin at a meeting in 1989. But he described the possible encounter as being more casual than arranged, more of an informal “chit-chat” than a “meeting of substance.”
Ahern, according to an Irish Times report, explained his earlier written statement by saying he was responding to a request from the tribunal for any recollection he had of a meeting with members of the cabinet of then Taoiseach Charles Haughey to discuss plans for Quarryvale, one of two proposed Dublin shopping developments at the center of the tribunal probe.
Ahern said he would count such an encounter as a formal meeting, and he believed none had taken place. His testimony to the tribunal, however, pointed to the possibility of a less than formal get together.
“If you asked me the question that we are now not talking about a meeting at all, that there could have been a casual chit-chat with a few ministers . . . that of course could have happened,” the Times reported Ahern as stating.
Ahern’s conceding that an encounter of some sort may have taken place was seen to have bolstered Gilmartin’s earlier testimony that he had met with Haughey and senior government ministers, including Ahern, who was minister for labor at the time.
Gilmartin further alleged in his testimony to the tribunal that after the meeting he was approached by a man who sought payment of a