Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)

As a Member from Sligo and as a fellow Sligoman, I will concentrate in my contribution on the issue of Tom Gilmartin and the treatment dished out to a man who arrived back to Ireland in the late 1980s and who wished to invest in the country of his birth. The tribunal stated and agreed that Mr. Gilmartin had a legitimate interest in business and property development in and around Dublin. Mr. Gilmartin hoped to put together a business proposal and to make money, a legitimate goal for any business person. His second goal was to invest in the country of his birth and give something back. All those years ago, little did he realise what lay ahead.

Tom Gilmartin was born in Dunfore in Ballinfull, north Sligo, and emigrated to the UK in his late teens. His story is the story of many intelligent and hard-working people who had to emigrate from this country. He left Sligo in 1957, against his father's wishes, in order to make a better life in England. He was far more successful than most of his contemporaries in this regard. He built up a successful engineering company in Luton which manufactured sophisticated mechanical handling engineering systems for the nearby Vauxhall car factory and other manufacturers. When the industry collapsed in the early 1980s, he moved into property development identifying sites and investors for projects in Milton Keynes, Belfast and other towns. In partnership and with encouragement from property group Arlington Securities, which was prepared to invest €20 million, he began to assemble properties along Bachelor's Walk in Dublin city centre and in Quarryvale in west Dublin. However, he soon began to meet unexpected obstacles which have been well described in his testimony to the tribunal. Following the collapse of the economy, the goal of this Government is to seek and encourage investment in Ireland, in other words, Ireland is seeking the Tom Gilmartins of today to put money into our economy and assist in our recovery. This was the sincere ambition of Tom Gilmartin but, unfortunately for him, this turned out to be a personal nightmare.

It is worth reminding the House of the conclusions of the Mahon tribunal report with regard to Tom Gilmartin which are stated in section 7, page 2458. The decision on the part of Mr. Gilmartin to make a payment to the Fianna Fáil Party was misconceived and entirely inappropriate on his part. However, the tribunal accepted that he did this in circumstances which included duress or coercion, where he believed he had no choice but to act accordingly in order to avoid obstacles and improper behaviour on the part of elected public representatives and a senior public servant and in order to create a level playing field in relation to his plans to develop Quarryvale.

This is a significant statement and, in my view, it completely vindicates the bona fides of Tom Gilmartin's business proposals for Bachelor's Walk and Quarryvale. I am very angry as a Sligoman and as an Irishman at the way Tom Gilmartin was treated. It was like being hijacked or robbed on the M50 by Dick Turpin or Ned Kelly; wherever he turned there was a senior Fianna Fáil politician or a bag man with the paw out. It is frustrating to read Tom Gilmartin's evidence to the tribunal and to imagine his thoughts at the hands of these individuals who can be rightly accused of extortion. I listened to Thomas Gilmartin junior at the weekend and he provided us with a comprehensive account of his family's feelings. The efforts by various media commentators and politicians to discredit Tom Gilmartin as a witness were despicable in my view. The attempt by counsel for former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to suggest that Tom Gilmartin had mental health issues must have been the lowest point in this saga. Under cross-examination by counsel, Tom Gilmartin was asked if he had ever discussed any of these issues or allegations with a medical adviser. Thomas Gilmartin junior described this as a low-life action.

The evidence and statement of Tom Gilmartin identified Frank Dunlop as the bag man for some of the accused politicians. Were it not for this and the ultimate admission by Dunlop, Judge Mahon would never have been able to present such a comprehensive and revealing report to the House. For this reason alone, Tom Gilmartin has given great service to this country because it means that people who betrayed the electorate by taking bribes were exposed. Were it not for Tom Gilmartin's evidence we would not have learned about the large sums of money going through Bertie Ahern's bank account. We still await a credible explanation as to the origin of this money. The payment of €50,000 to the former Minister, Padraig Flynn, was not a corrupt payment according to the tribunal. However, it stated that Mr. Flynn received a corrupt payment. The arrogance of the actions of Flynn is well documented. However, it was his dismissal of Tom Gilmartin on the famous "Late Late Show" which was extremely hurtful for the Gilmartin family and showed the plan by the main culprits in this saga to implant the view that Tom Gilmartin was somehow imagining everything. The Mahon tribunal clearly found otherwise.

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