Analysis:The tribunal yesterday heard in passing evidence of the associations that existed in the 1990s between supporters of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Ahern himself, and Frank Dunlop, the lobbyist who has given sworn evidence about being involved in the corruption of the planning process in Dublin on behalf of property developers during this period.
Yesterday, Dunlop said that he had regular contact with Ahern during his period as minister for labour, minister for finance and, from 1997, Taoiseach. He would make calls to Ahern, and Ahern would make calls to him.
He had "ongoing contacts" with Ahern, about a variety of issues, the "vast majority to do with clients of mine", Dunlop said. "Bertie would go out of his way on some occasions to facilitate any requests I made of him," he told Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal.
The tribunal's focus yesterday was on a period in 1998 when the official opening of the Quarryvale centre was being arranged and Dunlop was making efforts to get Ahern to perform the ceremony. He found it necessary to involve the then chief fundraiser for Fianna Fáil, Des Richardson, in this efforts, sending his first written request to Richardson at his office in the Berkeley Court Hotel, rather than to Ahern's office in the Department of the Taoiseach.
Dunlop had, over the course of much of the 1990s, been in receipt of fees from the Cork property developer Owen O'Callaghan for his work in smoothing the way for the Quarryvale development.
This work, according to Dunlop, included the making of corrupt payments to councillors and to the late Liam Lawlor.
Dunlop and O'Callaghan say that the Cork developer did not know of these payments, and the veracity of this claim was another focus of yesterday's questioning. An entry in Dunlop's diary showed a meeting he organised in St Luke's between O'Callaghan and Ahern in 1998.
Richardson was meeting Dunlop on an almost weekly basis in 1998 and "may have had" business interests with Dunlop in 1998, Dillon said. The tribunal was established in November 1997 but Dunlop continued making corrupt payments, counsel added. He was close to Fianna Fáil and in November 1997 attended the party president's dinner in the Burlington Hotel.
He also attended the annual dinner in Kilmainham held to raise funds for Ahern's constituency operation, a very successful annual event for which Richardson was a key organiser. The tribunal would have been a subject of conversation at these events. At the time, Dunlop said, it was considered a joke in political circles.
Dunlop agreed with Dillon that he would attend the Kilmainham dinner with clients, including property developer clients on whose behalf he was making corrupt payments to politicians. He brought Robert White and John Butler to the dinner, Dillon said.
White and Butler have been mentioned before at the tribunal in relation to the so-called Cloghran module and their efforts to make money out of land speculation. During this module another of the Taoiseach's close associates, Tim Collins, came up for mention. He introduced Butler to Dunlop, who then proceeded to bribe councillors in pursuit of his clients' objectives.
Collins is one of the trustees of St Luke's, Mr Ahern's constituency centre in Drumcondra.
