EU man bung allegation

A claim that Ireland's current EU Commissioner, Padraig Flynn, was given £50,000 by a property developer is being examined by a judicial tribunal investigating allegations of corruption to the Irish planning process.

Former developer Thomas Gilmartin, now an electrical contractor living in Luton, claims he handed over the cheque in the late 1980s, when Flynn was Irish Environment Minister, and that he has witnesses to prove it. But in a brief statement from his office in Brussels, the Commissioner categorically denied receiving any money.

Gilmartin built up a successful engineering business in Britain before being forced to sell it in the 1980s. He returned home to try his hand at property development. In an unsigned statement to the inquiry tribunal, Gilmartin said he then experienced planning and other difficulties in getting a major Dublin city centre development underway.

Gilmartin claimed that he was told by senior political figures that the best way to surmount his difficulties would be to make a contribution to the party then in power, Fianna Fail. He maintained he handed the £50,000 contribution to Flynn. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the current Fianna Fail leader, is refusing to say if party records show that the money was received. It is now an issue for the inquiry tribunal, he insists.

The tribunal, headed by a High Court judge, Mr Justice Fergus Flood, was established after the resignation earlier this year of another senior Fianna Fail figure, Foreign Minister Ray Burke. Burke quit the government, and then resigned his parliamentary seat, amid huge political controversy over a £30,000 donation he admitted receiving from a building firm, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering (JMSE).

There were allegations that much larger sums than £30,000 were involved, in return for help with re-zoning of land for housing and in overcoming difficulties with planning permission. The tribunal is now investigating both the Burke affair and the wider issue of alleged corruption in the planning process, particularly in the Dublin area.

Public hearings by the tribunal are likely to start before the end of the year.

Gilmartin's allegations are being taken very seriously and members of the tribunal are planning to travel to Luton to talk to him, in the hope of persuading him to give evidence in person, or at least to sign his statement.

In his statement, Gilmartin claimed he paid money on a regular basis to a Fianna Fail member of parliament for consultancy work on his behalf. That has now been confirmed by the member concerned, Liam Lawlor, who says he was paid £3,500 a month for a period in the mid-1980s.