The councillor who proposed the rezoning of three of the tracts of land in north county Dublin at the centre of the present planning controversy has said he did so to create employment. Mr Cyril Gallagher, now chairman of Fingal County Council, told The Irish Times yesterday: "Nothing was offered, nothing was given and so nothing is owed."
Mr Gallagher successfully proposed the rezoning of 161 of the 170 acres of the land which was eventually rezoned. The remainder of the 730 acres does not appear to have been rezoned since 1989.
The 730 acres was the subject of a letter from developer, Mr Mic hael Bailey, to Mr James Gogarty of the company which owned the land, JMSE, in June 1989. In it, Mr Bailey suggested he could either buy the land outright or be given a 50 per cent share in it "in exchange for procuring planning permission and building by-law approval".
Three days after this letter was sent, Mr Bailey and Mr Gogarty went to Mr Ray Burke's house and Mr Gogarty gave Mr Burke £30,000 in cash.
Mr Gallagher said yesterday he had received no communication from Mr Burke about these lands at any stage. He had been approached by Mr Bailey about two of the tracts of land and by a local building company about the third. Mr Gallagher said he was regularly asked by developers to propose motions to rezone pieces of land and, if he thought it was right, he did so to create jobs. He regarded it as his duty as a county councillor to do so.
In the case of 100 acres at Poppintree, Ballymun (area 1 in map), he said he had been approached by Mr Bailey and asked to propose that it be rezoned from agricultural to part residential, part industrial use. He agreed.
In 1991 he and Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Sean Gilbride, ail) successfully proposed that the majority of this site be zoned residential. In 1993 he, Mr Gilbride and Fine Gael councillor, Ms Anne Devitt, successfully proposed that the remainder of the site be zoned residential.
In the case of 16 acres at Jamestown Little, Finglas (area 2 in map), Mr Gallagher said that as far back as 1981, the local parish priest had written to the deputy leader of Fine Gael, Mrs Nora Owen - then a county councillor - suggesting that the land be rezoned from agricultural use to industrial use. No change had resulted at that time, he said.
"But since then, the land all around it was built on, leaving it useless as a farm. I saw nothing wrong in rezoning it for industry," he said. Again, he had been asked by Mr Bailey to propose its rezoning. He, Mr Gilbride and Ms Devitt proposed the motion confirming the rezoning in March 1993.
In the case of the third tract of land, 45 acres surrounding Beverton House, Donabate (area 3 in map), Mr Gallagher and Ms Devitt again proposed the necessary motions to have its zoning changed from agricultural to residential use.
Mr Gallagher said he was approached by a local building firm which asked him to propose rezoning the land. "I did it because they employ a lot of people in my own village of Swords," he said yesterday.
He said it was the duty of county councillors to decide on the zoning of land. "If you want to zone something you put it forward as a motion, the county manager reports on it, that report is either positive or negative, then you make your case and then the council votes."
He supported many rezoning motions because of his belief that "when the country is doing well, the builders and farmers are doing well. When the builders and farmers are doing well, the country is doing well."
The building industry created employment and, "if I don't zone [land for building], all our planners grind to a halt, JCB drivers grind to a halt. If we don't zone, they can't build anything."
He said that since he first sat on the council since 1979 he had been "persecuted by rogue builders" who would leave houses and estates unfinished, causing major problems for the council. Mr Bailey's companies, however, did "good jobs" and left no difficulties to be sorted out when they left.
He had known Mr Bailey personally for a considerable amount of time, he said.