Overview:It was a troubling day at the Mahon tribunal yesterday in terms of the evidence heard, writes Colm Keena
A former taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael and the EU's current ambassador to the US, John Bruton accepted he had not acted after being told by lobbyist Frank Dunlop that a Fine Gael councillor had been asking for money in return for a vote.
Dunlop is associated with Fianna Fáil and is a former press officer to the late Charles Haughey. In 1993 he was dispensing largesse to Dublin councillors which he had received from Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan, who was seeking to develop the Quarryvale, now Liffey Valley, centre, despite it being contrary to the Dublin development plan.
The late Fine Gael councillor, Tom Hand, was seeking substantially more than his fellow councillors in return for his support, according to Dunlop, and he and O'Callaghan were annoyed with him. Dunlop reported him to Bruton at a Fine Gael fundraising lunch in May 1993.
Bruton's reaction was to be wary of Dunlop's party political motivation, rather than be concerned that an elected member of Fine Gael might be involved in selling his vote.
He did nothing. He did not approach or contact Hand or ask anyone to look into the matter, or ask Dunlop to put his allegation down in writing. This despite his view at the time that Dunlop was a "serious person".
In and around this time, there had been two Garda inquiries into allegations of corruption in the Dublin planning process. The second had been prompted by a series of articles in The Irish Times. Bruton said he could not recall being struck by the coincidence of what he had been told by Dunlop and the widely read articles by Frank McDonald and Mark Brennock in this newspaper which had appeared a short time afterwards.
(In fact, Dunlop was named in a number of these articles as acting for parties who profited from controversial planning votes, as was Hand as a supporter of controversial motions.)
In January 1992, a year before his meeting with Dunlop, Bruton and a large number of the elected members of his party had been sent a letter by Tony Johnson, on behalf of Dublin west retailers.
Johnson wrote of a Fine Gael fundraising dinner held in the area at Christmas and Bruton's speech emphasising integrity in business and politics.
"Strokes" involving some Fine Gael support had led to the plan for Quarryvale coming "out of the blue", despite being contrary to both the Dublin development plan the interests of the people of Ronanstown, Johnson wrote.
He called for every member of Fine Gael to openly declare support for integrity in politics.
Bruton said he did not recall the letter.
A third fundraising event featured at the tribunal, this one at a house in Cork in March 1993. The following Monday, Des Richardson, who had attended the dinner and was at the time a full-time fundraiser for Fianna Fáil, lodged £50,000 to a party bank account in Dublin.
The money was lodged in two £25,000 lodgments, for a reason Mr Richardson said he could not recall, and included £4,000 cash.
It seems the dinner was attended by anything up to 20 people. Ten made contributions on the night and it seems they left their cheques or cash in envelopes on a hall table or on the dinner table.
Richardson, who operated from an office in the Berkeley Court Hotel, Dublin, said he would have issued "thank you" letters later and would have provided party headquarters with a list of the donors. The party would have had an interest in receiving the names so that future requests for funds could be made. No such list has turned up in the party files and some of the donors have never received subsequent requests for donations.
Richardson said the "thank you" letters would have been signed by Bertie Ahern, who had appointed Richardson to his position in 1993 and who was at the time minister for finance and chairman of the party's national finance committee.
Owen O'Callaghan had a role in drafting the guest list for the dinner, which was held at the home of accountant Niall Welch, possibly at O'Callaghan's instigation, the tribunal has been told. Shortly before the dinner, Richardson met Dunlop who, he said, had "kindly" offered to help Richardson with drafting letters and short speeches that he might have to give as part of his fundraising efforts.
Dunlop helped Richardson to prepare the few words he delivered that night in Cork, on the subject of Fianna Fáil's financial needs and its future aspirations.