Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former taoiseach Albert Reynolds and a solicitor for lobbyist Frank Dunlop would all have been in the same coronary unit if they knew the late Liam Lawlor was involved in a proposal to develop a national stadium, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Dunlop said he kept Mr Lawlor's involvement in the project from Mr Ahern, Mr Reynolds and James O'Dwyer, solicitor with Arthur Cox and Company. The stadium was being planned by Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan for land at Neilstown, west Dublin, in the early 1990s. It was originally designed as a ruse to ensure that Mr O'Callaghan's Quarryvale development would go ahead, but was taken seriously on some levels.
Mr Ahern, then minister for finance, Mr Reynolds and then minister for sport Liam Aylward had a number of meetings with Mr O'Callaghan and US financial backers, Chilton & O'Connor Incorporated, in relation to the development in 1993 and 1994. Mr Dunlop said Mr Lawlor was not mentioned to the politicians in connection with the development. "Why would you not have wanted to tell Mr Reynolds or Mr Ahern that a sitting TD of the Fianna Fáil party had an interest in the project?" counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon asked.
"I said James O'Dwyer would have a multiple coronary; the taoiseach and the then minister for finance would be in the same coronary unit if Mr Lawlor's name was mentioned in this context," Mr Dunlop responded.
Mr Dunlop told the tribunal that Mr Ahern had a meeting with Mr O'Callaghan and Bill O'Connor of Chilton O'Connor in his ministerial office in November 1994, a month before the government fell. At the meeting, Mr Ahern "abruptly" told them that the government would not support the stadium. He said Mr O'Callaghan and Mr O'Connor were both "extremely annoyed" with Mr Ahern's response.
Ms Dillon examined the details of a proposed arrangement between Mr O'Callaghan, Mr Dunlop, Mr Lawlor and architect Ambrose Kelly in relation to the land on which the stadium was to be built.
She said a company called Merrygrove Ltd, partly owned by Mr O'Callaghan, had bought the option on that land. Letters to Mr Dunlop's solicitors, Arthur Cox and Company, appeared to give instructions that Mr O'Callaghan had agreed to effectively give Mr Dunlop, Mr Lawlor and Mr Kelly a share in option on that land.
However, Mr Dunlop said Mr O'Callaghan would not have done that "in a month of Sundays".
"Why would you have instructed your solicitor to embark on a falsehood?" Ms Dillon asked. Mr Dunlop responded that Mr Lawlor wanted an agreement and the correspondence was an attempt to "build up a file" on the matter to ensure Mr Lawlor "felt comfortable".
Ms Dillon asked if Mr O'Callaghan was complicit in the arrangement or if it had come as a surprise to him. Mr Dunlop responded that he thought Mr O'Callaghan was aware of the correspondence and the basis on which it was done. "There was a process of osmosis about this," he said.
Fianna Fáil senator Ann Ormonde told the tribunal that she never solicited a donation of £1,000 from Mr Dunlop, but she accepted that she did receive it. Mr Dunlop gave a cheque of £1,000 to Ms Ormonde in January 1993, in advance of the Seanad elections. Ms Ormonde said she did not ask for the money and could not say how Mr Dunlop had selected her for the donation.
She said she was a consistent supporter of the Quarryvale development and Mr Dunlop was "pushing an open door" in looking for her support, because she believed the development would be good for the area. Ms Ormonde did not recall a number of phone calls she made to Mr Dunlop, a lunch at Le Coq Hardi in December 1992, or four meetings with Mr Dunlop recorded in his diary in 1996.
