The late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand told former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop that he was offered £100,000 (€127,000) by the developers of Blanchardstown shopping centre to vote against the Quarryvale development, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon SC questioned Mr Dunlop about a demand of £250,000 allegedly made by Mr Hand in advance of a vote on Quarryvale in December 1992.
Mr Dunlop was working for developers Owen O'Callaghan and Tom Gilmartin, who wanted to develop the Liffey Valley shopping centre on the west Dublin site.
He alleged he had already paid Mr Hand £20,000 in relation to his support for an earlier council motion on Quarryvale in May, 1991.
Mr Dunlop had said Mr Hand supplied him with details of his bank account in Australia, which has subsequently been shown to have existed, and asked him to lodge £250,000 to it. He had allegedly said that rival development company Green Property, who were behind the Blanchardstown development, had offered him £100,000 to oppose Quarryvale.
Mr Dunlop said he decided to tell Mr O'Callaghan about Mr Hand's demand because he did not want Mr O'Callaghan to think he was "doing a double whammy" on him and he also wanted to get rid of Mr Hand, who was "becoming a pest".
Ms Dillon asked what he meant by "double whammy" and Mr Dunlop said it meant "hitting somebody twice".
Mr O'Callaghan was very angry, Mr Dunlop said, and told Mr Hand to "eff off". And he threatened to tell then Fine Gael leader John Bruton about the demand. Mr Dunlop said the threat didn't bother Mr Hand in the slightest.
"He made some derogatory remarks about Mr Bruton's inherited wealth," Mr Dunlop said.
Mr Dunlop was adamant, however, that he did not tell Mr O'Callaghan that he had already paid Mr Hand £20,000 or that he paid money to other councillors for their support of the Quarryvale project.
Judge Gerald Keys asked if anyone had considered contacting gardaí about the demand. "I don't think it entered anybody's thinking," Mr Dunlop replied.
Ms Dillon also took Mr Dunlop through payments he alleged he made to 15 councillors in advance of local elections in June, 1991 for their support of the Quarryvale development.
At a council meeting in May 1991, councillors in Dublin County Council voted to rezone the land for development.
Mr Dunlop said he paid councillors under the guise of contributions for the local election, on different dates in May and June.
The largest payment he alleged he made, of £40,000, was to the late Fianna Fáil representative Liam Lawlor, and he said he paid £20,000 to Mr Hand. The late Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Dunne received £15,000 and former Fianna Fáil councillor John Gilbride was paid £12,000. Other councillors were paid £1,000 or £2,000 and the payments were made at locations including councillors' homes, the council car park, Conway's pub and the Royal Dublin Hotel.
Mr Dunlop made his first statement on the payments to councillors to the tribunal in 2000 and provided the list of councillors to whom he made them.
Ms Dillon questioned Mr Dunlop about why he only included some details of the payments, such as some exact dates and locations, in a later statement in 2003 and why two of the councillors' names, Don Lydon and Liam Cosgrave, were omitted from the original list.
"You are prepared without care or consideration to change your evidence at any time that suits you," Ms Dillon said. Mr Dunlop rejected that.
