Minister for Finance Brian Cowen is among those who will give evidence at a new module of the planning tribunal which gets under way this week.
The tribunal is to investigate allegations that a number of councillors received money from lobbyist Frank Dunlop to secure the rezoning of land near Dublin airport.
Mr Cowen is scheduled to appear before the tribunal on Wednesday of next week.
It is understood that Mr Cowen will give evidence on issues that arose when he was Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in the mid 1990s.
When it resumes tomorrow after its summer break , the tribunal will begin public hearings into the rezoning of the Cargobridge lands near Dublin airport in 1993, a development which was strongly opposed by Aer Rianta. It is understood that Mr Dunlop has maintained that Michael McGuinness, then manager of Neptune Freight, paid him £10,000 in cash and told him some councillors would require payment to ensure their vote. Mr McGuinness denies this allegation.
Mr Dunlop claims he paid £1,000 each to Fianna Fáil councillors Cyril Gallagher and Tony Fox for their support, and says a composite £2,000 payment was made to councillor Seán Gilbride for his support for this development and developments at Cloghran and Drumnigh.
Mr Fox and Mr Gilbride deny his allegation. Mr Gallagher died in 2000.The rezoning, which was passed by an overwhelming majority of councillors in 1993, was for industry. Air freight warehousing has since been built on the site.
Mr McGuinness, a brother of Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, and Mr Dunlop both hail from Co Kilkenny. Mr Dunlop says he was contacted by Mr McGuinness in February 1993 and subsequently met the businessman at least 14 times. He says he was retained to help achieve the rezoning of the land and to counteract the lobbying efforts of Aer Rianta.
Mr Dunlop says that while Mr McGuinness told him councillors would have to be paid, he did not name any councillor, nor did he indicate that he had made payments himself.
Four Fianna Fáil, two Fine Gael and a Progressive Democrat councillor signed the rezoning motion, which came before Dublin County Council in March 1993. The motion was passed by 51 votes to zero, with two abstentions. A later attempt led by councillor Joe Higgins to have the rezoning overturned was defeated later that year by a similarly wide margin.
