Council foyer was like 'cattle fair', says Burton

Labour Deputy Joan Burton told the Mahon tribunal yesterday that the Dublin County Council foyer was like a "cattle fair" in advance of a crucial vote to rezone land at Quarryvale, in west Dublin.

Ms Burton said that when councillors entered the lobby of the Dublin County Council offices on O'Connell Street there was an intense atmosphere. "You sort of had to run a gauntlet of developers, advisers, lobbyists and PR merchants," she said.

"It was a bit like a cattle fair to be honest, you had to beat your way through."

Tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon SC asked Ms Burton if she thought the local election campaign in June 1991, which preceded the vote on Quarryvale and which elected her to the council, was "fairly torrid".

"It was more like a third world war in political terms," she replied.

The tribunal heard that the vote on rezoning Quarryvale was taken at a council meeting in December 1992. Ms Dillon said lobbyist Frank Dunlop had given evidence that Ms Burton had shouted and was "loud" and "frantic" when party colleague Eithne Fitzgerald voted for a motion that would allow retail development at Quarryvale of up to 250,000 sq ft.

"I don't recall ever being loud or frantic with Eithne Fitzgerald, who is a very dear friend," Ms Burton said.

Asked if she felt, given what she had witnessed in the council, that money could be changing hands between developers and councillors, she said she did.

The tribunal was also told that auditors Deloitte and Touche found no supporting documentation for a number of transactions carried out in accounts relating to the Quarryvale development.

Tribunal counsel Pat Quinn SC produced documentation showing queries from the auditors in relation to the transactions in the Barkhill accounts, including three payments totalling £80,000 to Shefran Ltd, a company owned by former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop.

The payments were made over a four-week period in May and June 1991 and were for roundfigure sums of £25,000, £15,000 and £40,000. No Vat appeared to have been paid on them.

Mr Quinn also highlighted an invoice from architect Ambrose Kelly for £10,000 in March 1992, for professional services rendered, which had a hand-written note stating "the above amount has been as a loan to Ambrose Kelly to be repaid".

Property developer Tom Gilmartin told the tribunal he had no knowledge of the Shefran payments or the "loan" to Ambrose Kelly. "I had a strong suspicion that Mr Kelly was involved in spurious payments, but that's rather odd," he said.

Mr Gilmartin did, however, agree that he signed off on the financial statements produced by the auditors when the work was completed. "At the time I couldn't care less. I had no input, no say whatsoever in Quarryvale," he said.

A letter from disgraced ex-minister Ray Burke was also read into the record. Mr Burke was responding to claims made by Mr Gilmartin last week, who said he was told a meeting was held in a solicitor's office to organise a £700,000 payment to Mr Burke.

Mr Burke said there was not a "scintilla of truth" in the allegation and said he was surprised tribunal counsel had failed to read into the record a categorical denial of any knowledge whatsoever of the matter by the solicitor in question and a denial that he had ever met Mr Burke.