BUSINESSMAN JIM KENNEDY was last night released on bail from Cloverhill Prison in Dublin after being charged with 16 counts of corrupt payments to politicians.
Mr Kennedy’s family last night raised the €30,000 cash bail imposed by Judge David McHugh to secure his release from the prison.
Four former Fianna Fáil councillors, one of whom still serves as an Independent, were also charged yesterday on corruption-related offences.
Former Dublin county councillors Colm McGrath, Sean Gilbride and former councillor and senator Don Lydon deny the charges, as does Cllr Tony Fox. Mr Kennedy made no reply when the charges were put to him by gardaí.
The charges faced by the four politicians and Mr Kennedy all relate to the attempted rezoning of land owned by Jackson Way Properties at Carrickmines in 1992, and the successful rezoning of part of these lands in 1997.
Mr Kennedy is a director of Jackson Way and is said by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) to be the owner of the land. All five men have been remanded to appear in court again next week.
The Carrickmines land has been frozen since 2005 after the Cab said they believed corrupt payments to councillors secured the rezoning from agricultural to industrial use. The bureau also says the rezoning resulted in a massive increase in the value of the land, and inflated a €13 million compensation award to Jackson Way when 20 acres were acquired to build the M50.
Former government press secretary Frank Dunlop, who was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to corruption, was accused of brokering the deal.
Mr Kennedy was charged with handing over cash to Mr Gilbride in June 1992 in Dunlop’s Upper Mount Street office to secure councillors’ votes on the Carrickmines site.
He was charged with giving the late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand money in the reception of Dublin county council offices in May 1992 to get his vote for the rezoning. He was also charged with handing over money in Conway’s public house, Parnell Street, the following month. This was allegedly given to Jack Larkin, another deceased county councillor, to secure another vote on that land.
Mr Kennedy is alleged to have paid money in 1992 to former Fine Gael senator and councillor Liam Cosgrave for a vote on the 108 acres and again in 1997 at the Davenport Hotel for a vote on 36 acres being decided on by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Mr Kennedy was detained by the Cab on Tuesday afternoon after emerging from the Four Courts where he had attended proceedings by the bureau against Jackson Way.
He was later hospitalised for a couple of days. Yesterday, after being charged at Donnybrook Garda station, he was brought to court. He waved, smiled and gave the thumbs-up sign to his family as he was taken into custody.
Det Garda Vincent Byrne had objected to bail. He said Mr Kennedy had addresses in Gibraltar and London and had relinquished his Irish citizenship. He agreed with Luan Ó Braonáin SC that Mr Kennedy had no prior convictions.
Mr Kennedy is to appear before Cloverhill District Court on Tuesday.