Developer paid £360,000 in legal fees for Dunlop

Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan paid more than £360,000 (€457,000) in tribunal legal fees for lobbyist Frank Dunlop, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.

He began paying the fees in November 1998, when Mr Dunlop first came in contact with the tribunal, but ceased paying them in July 2000, after Mr Dunlop had admitted corrupt payments to councillors.

Mr O'Callaghan had employed Mr Dunlop in 1991 to ensure that planning for the Quarryvale project, now Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, was approved by councillors in Dublin County Council.

Mr Dunlop made payments to councillors of £70,000 to ensure the project succeeded.

Mr Dunlop said he had a conversation about his legal fees with Mr O'Callaghan when he first became aware of what they might cost. He said he told Mr O'Callaghan that he did not have that kind of money and Mr O'Callaghan responded "I will look after that". "It was mutually agreed that he would discharge my legal fees," he said.

Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon, pointed out that at the time Mr Dunlop had £405,000 in various accounts and, a month before, had been paid £300,000 by Mr O'Callaghan as a success fee, which he used to pay the Revenue Commissioners.

She said Mr Dunlop was not "short of funds" and asked him why he did not pay his legal fees himself.

Mr Dunlop said that at the time, he had no idea how long "this national institution would continue", but he was apprehensive about the fees and their ongoing nature. He also said that, given the publicity surrounding Quarryvale, he feared there might be a negative effect on his business.

Tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon asked Mr Dunlop if he had made a case for why Mr O'Callaghan should pay his fees. He asked if, for example, he told Mr O'Callaghan he was involved in Quarryvale because he had hired him.

"As a general rule, another person won't discharge fees simply because the person who has to pay them can't afford to pay them," Judge Mahon said. "Normally they would require some sort of reason for doing it, other than pity."

"Let's delete pity," Mr Dunlop replied. He said he had found himself "in the cross-hairs of a rifle" when the tribunal contacted him.

But Mr Dunlop said he did not tell Mr O'Callaghan "I'm in this because of you". The "general orientation of the conversation" was that "we're in this together", he said.

Ms Dillon outlined the 16 legal fees invoices sent to Mr O'Callaghan's company, Riga Ltd, by Frank Dunlop and Associates between November 1998 and July 2000. They ranged from sums of just under £3,000 to as much as £55,000 and totalled £364,380.

Ms Dillon asked Mr Dunlop if he was aware that those who co-operated and told the truth to the tribunal, would be awarded their costs. He said that at the time he did not think he was.

Ms Dillon read into the record a statement to the tribunal from Mr O'Callaghan in which he said he paid Mr Dunlop's fees because he had "incurred legal expenses as a direct consequence, as I then understood, of his involvement in Quarryvale".

He also said that he decided to cease the payments after Mr Dunlop's evidence in 2000, when he told of his corrupt payments to councillors, because it became apparent that "Mr Dunlop's involvement in the tribunal was not one which related solely to his link with the Quarryvale development".