This is quite significant, and links Bertie Ahern into some rather dubious shenanigans.
Tribunal judges have warned a land agent about his evidence after he failed to mention a controversial land deal from which he received a €600,000 payment.
Tim Collins denied deliberately misleading the inquiry over his involvement in the acquisition by Deepriver Ltd of the Battle of the Boyne site at Oldbridge, Co Meath.
Mr Collins is a close associate of the Taoiseach’s and a trustee of Bertie Ahern’s constituency office. He told the tribunal yesterday he was not a political person and was not a member of any political party.
Tribunal judges said they found it astonishing and extraordinary that Mr Collins had failed to mention the Deepriver deal until the inquiry’s lawyers drew attention to his 12.5 per cent share in the company.
Deepriver bought the land for £2.7 million in 1997 and sold it to the State for £7.4 million two years later after the Government decided to acquire the historic site. Mr Collins denied having a similar arrangement – under which he would be given a share of the profit – in relation to the property currently under investigation by the tribunal at Lissenhall, north Dublin.
It was a tidy profit, especially if you knew the government was going to buy the land.