The Flood tribunal is now investigating the designation of certain areas for urban renewal tax incentives between 1988 and 1994 and whether there were links between these decisions and payments to Fianna Fail figures, The Irish Times has learned.
It is understood that the tribunal, headed by Mr Justice Flood, recently requisitioned several files from the Department of the Environment - including files relating to a 1988 decision by the former minister Mr Padraig Flynn to designate land in the centre of Tallaght for urban renewal incentives.
It was this designation that led to the construction by Monarch Properties of The Square shopping centre. Monarch Properties had been sitting on the site for several years - until Mr Flynn agreed to include it in the incentives scheme.
According to sources, the tribunal is also examining files relating to decisions made by Mr Flynn in another round of urban renewal designations in 1990 and by his successor, Mr Michael Smith - currently Minister for Defence - in a major extension of the scheme in 1994.
Among those to benefit were Mr John Byrne, the veteran property developer and close associate of Mr Charles Haughey. Designations in 1988 included an area around the Brandon Hotel in Tralee, part-owned by Mr Byrne, while in 1990, another of his sites - the former Tara Street baths in Dublin - was designated.
One of the major beneficiaries in 1994 was Mr Ken Rohan. His site at the edge of the Grand Canal Docks, then occupied by the derelict IMP meat factory, was included within a new tax-incentive zone.
The Labour TD Mr Emmet Stagg, then minister of state in charge of urban renewal, has stood firmly behind the decisions made at the time - even defending Mr Smith's designation of a site in Athlone, known as Golden Island, on his last morning in office in November 1994 after the FF/Labour coalition collapsed.
The beneficiaries of this decision were Cork-based O'Callaghan Properties and Tiernan Properties of Limerick. It was Mr Owen O'Callaghan, also a Fianna Fail supporter, who took over the major shopping centre project at Quarryvale from Mr Tom Gilmartin, the Luton-based developer who maintains he paid £50,000 to Mr Flynn.
It is understood that the Flood tribunal will be seeking to examine whether there are links between the decisions made on urban renewal designation and contributions to Fianna Fail, which reduced its debt from more than £3 million to just £500,000 in the period when Mr Bertie Ahern was party treasurer and minister for finance.
In May 1994, responding to questions posed by The Irish Times, Mr Smith denied that there was any link, citing golf classics as the explanation. "If I found out that anyone, anywhere, was contributing on the basis of expecting designation of their property, that area would be ruled out of contention altogether."
