Mr Michael Smurfit is one of two men who gave Senator Don Lydon cheques for £5,000 to help finance his Seanad election campaign in 1992, ireland.comhas learned.
During his evidence to the Flood tribunal on Tuesday, Mr Lydon did not name these two benefactors publicly, opting instead to jot down their names on a piece of paper, which was then handed to the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Feargus Flood and his co-judges. The names were also shown to the various legal teams present.
When asked why he had not disclosed either of these £5,000 payments to the Fianna Fáil inquiry into political donations in 1999, Mr Lydon said it never came up. The inquiry was focussed on Cherrywood, Quarryvale and the Paisley Park lands, he said. "If they'd asked, I would have told them," he declared.
Mr Lydon described the first donor simply as a "well-known person in business", with whom he had been friends for many years. Multi-millionaire businessman Mr Smurfit, one of his "three very, very, very best friends", gave him the money solely to help his campaign and sought nothing in return, according to Mr Lydon.
It was "a lot of money" to average people, Mr Lydon said, but was nothing to men of Mr Smurfit's stature.
The other cheque for £5,000 came from a man he met in the Goat Grill in Taney, Co Dublin around the same time. Mr Lydon said he had only met this man once before, but the man insisted on giving him "a few bob" for his election campaign. ireland.comhas learned that this man is Mr Christopher Jones.
Mr Frank Dunlop told the Flood tribunal in May 2000 that two brothers gave him £17,500 to pay county councillors in the early 1990s in order to secure the rezoning of their 77-acre farm at Ballycullen, near Tallaght. It has been established by The Irish Timesthese two men were Mr Jones and his late brother Gerry.
Mr Lydon said today he knew the man he met in the pub had an interest in a company that developed lands, but he would not describe him as a developer. He did not ask him for any planning favours in return for the money.
Mr Lydon denied ever being approached by Mr Dunlop in relation to the Ballycullen farm, but admitted being shown around the property "by the fellow who managed it". It was this man, an employee of Mr Jones's, who asked him to propose the motion.
This motion, proposed by the late Mr Tom Hand and Senator Lydon, was subsequently passed by 42 votes to 14.
"You might think it's strange, maybe it is strange, but that's the truth," Mr Lydon told the tribunal today.
