Counsel says lobbyist's meeting 'fabricated'

A MEETING between lobbyist Frank Dunlop and former Fine Gael councillor Liam Cosgrave in November 1992 was "fabricated" to cover up payments made to one or more senior politicians, counsel for the late Tom Hand said yesterday.

David Burke accused Mr Dunlop of creating "illusions" in his diary to cover payments of up to £55,000 to senior politicians in advance of the 1992 general election.

The tribunal heard that Mr Dunlop was paid £70,000 by Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan on November 11th, 1992, by electronic transfer. He withdrew £55,000 in cash on the same day, the largest cash withdrawal he had ever made.

Mr Burke asked Mr Dunlop if he used the money to pay one or more senior politicians at the launch of the Fianna Fáil manifesto in the Treasury Building on Grand Canal Quay, on the same day.

Mr Dunlop denied making the payments or attending the launch. He said he attended a meeting with Mr Cosgrave that afternoon outside a church on Newtownpark Avenue in south Dublin and gave him £5,000.

Mr Burke said Mr Cosgrave had argued he met Mr Dunlop in Buswells Hotel, where he gave him a contribution of £2,000.

He suggested Mr Dunlop had not entered the reference to Mr Cosgrave in his diary until after April 2000. "You were writing it for an audience," Mr Burke said.

Mr Dunlop denied the allegation.

Mr Burke said it was unfortunate that an allegation against the late Mr Hand that he had asked Mr Dunlop and Mr O'Callaghan for £250,000 could not be put to him.

Aidan Lucey, bookkeeper for Mr O'Callaghan, told the tribunal yesterday that he signed blank cheques for Mr O'Callaghan, and was often not aware what some of the payments were for.

Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC, asked him if it was unusual to sign cheques without knowing why. "If it was Owen wanted them paid out, it would be quite normal," he said.

The tribunal heard that Mr Lucey began working for Mr O'Callaghan in 1972 as a storeman. He began keeping the books after the accountant was killed in an accident. He is currently company secretary to Riga Ltd, Owen O'Callaghan Properties Ltd and 31 other companies, as well as being a director of 18 of those companies.

The tribunal heard Mr Lucey was a signatory to many of the company cheques. Ms Dillon asked him about the process used in the company to deal with invoices and payments.

She showed him three invoices issued in 1991 by Shefran Ltd, a company owned by Mr Dunlop, totalling £80,000. She pointed out that none was stamped as paid.

"I'm suggesting that if you were given invoices by Mr O'Callaghan, you would have stamped it paid," Ms Dillon said. "I probably would have," Mr Lucey said.

Ms Dillon also highlighted the company's payments account, which showed the payments as entries analysed as "sundries".

"This suggests you had no invoice at the time," she said.

Mr Lucey described himself as a "messenger boy". "I was pushing paper from one side of the desk to the other side of the desk, but I wasn't engineering it," he said.

He said he was only a signatory to cheques for the company "for ease of convenience".

"May the tribunal take it that in the event you got any direction from Owen O'Callaghan, you would have implemented it?" Ms Dillon asked. Mr Lucey said he would.

He said he had no involvement in what was going on in Dublin at the time.