MAHON TRIBUNAL:LOBBYIST FRANK Dunlop paid out £115,000 to bribe politicians over six weeks in 1991, while a further unexplained £45,000 probably "went the same road", the Mahon tribunal has been told.
Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, yesterday said Mr Dunlop had already admitted he paid £115,000 to Dublin councillors in and around the time of a crucial vote on Quarryvale, but he was unable to explain what he did with a further £45,000 cash he had in hand at the time.
Ms Dillon asked Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan if he had any idea what Mr Dunlop, whom he had employed to lobby for Quarryvale, might have spent that money on. Mr O'Callaghan said he did not.
"Isn't it likely, that it went the same road, that it was money Mr Dunlop was using for some purpose about which he couldn't make full disclosure?" Ms Dillon asked. "I can't answer that," Mr O'Callaghan said.
The planning tribunal is questioning Mr O'Callaghan as part of the Quarryvale II module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre is built.
The tribunal heard that in May and June 1991, Mr Dunlop withdrew about £80,000 from an account he held in Rathfarnham. He had also been paid £80,000 by Mr O'Callaghan, which he had in cash.
Ms Dillon said Mr Dunlop could not account for how he spent the money, except to say it all went in to a "confluence of funds" out of which he paid councillors.
She asked Mr O'Callaghan if Mr Dunlop had ever told him he had made a large purchase such as an apartment in Spain or a valuable painting. Mr O'Callaghan said he had not.
"If Mr Dunlop is wrong and he didn't make the payments to councillors, there must be some other explanation for what he did with the money," Ms Dillon said.
Mr O'Callaghan said he was not party to what Mr Dunlop did with his money.
Mr Dunlop and the late Liam Lawlor, who was a supporter of Quarryvale, were "very, very close" and could have had a commercial relationship, he suggested. Ms Dillon asked Mr O'Callaghan what he knew about that. Mr O'Callaghan said he knew nothing.
"I was kept outside that wall so I never really knew what was going on between the two of them," he said.
Ms Dillon asked him if Irish Times correspondent Frank McDonald mentioned corruption in Dublin County Council to him when they met for lunch in June 1991.
Mr O'Callaghan said Mr McDonald had made a flippant reference to it. Ms Dillon asked how Mr Dunlop, who also attended the lunch, had responded to the suggestion there might be corruption.
"That it didn't exist," Mr O'Callaghan said. "Both of them seemed to spend quite a lot of time joking about this."
Ms Dillon also questioned Mr O'Callaghan about a cheque for £10,000 made out to his architect, Ambrose Kelly, in July 1994.
She said Mr Kelly told the tribunal this week that he cashed the cheque and gave the money back to Mr O'Callaghan. Mr O'Callaghan said he needed the cash to buy a pony at the Dublin Horse Show. He said it was not his practice to use cash and "never got involved in the luck penny aspect of horse buying", but in this case he felt he should have the money on him. In the end, he did not buy the pony, he said, and kept the cash to spend on Christmas.
Ms Dillon pointed out that he had previously said he never handled cash. "Is there no possibility this is a payment for onward transmission to a third party?"
"Absolutely not," Mr O'Callaghan said.
