Dunlop claims he gave G.V. Wright #2,000 in Dail bar

The Fianna Fáil TD, Mr G.V. Wright, was passed £2,000 in cash wrapped in newspaper in the Dáil bar in return for his support for a rezoning motion, the lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop has told the tribunal.

Mr Wright was one of four Fianna Fáil county councillors who were bribed with a total of £6,000 for their votes on the rezoning of lands at Drumnigh, near Portmarnock in north Dublin, in 1993, according to Mr Dunlop.

Mr Wright and Cllr Seán Gilbride deny Mr Dunlop's allegation. The other two councillors, Mr Cyril Gallagher and Mr Jack Larkin, denied receiving any payments from Mr Dunlop before their deaths several years ago.

The tribunal yesterday began public hearings into attempts to rezone the Drumnigh lands, owned by garage owner Mr Denis Mahony and leading accountant Mr Noel Fox. Mr Dunlop claimed the two landowners paid him £12,000 to get their lands rezoned.

Mr Mahony, who said he employed Mr Dunlop on a professional basis as a lobbyist and knows nothing about payments to councillors, bought 30 acres of land at Drumnigh for £190,000 in 1991. After they were rezoned for housing, the lands were transferred to his daughter's ownership and sold to Ballymore Homes for £13.5 million in 2000.

Mr Fox withdrew his lands from the 1993 rezoning motion. Mr Dunlop claims this happened because Mr Fox believed the rezoning would be "too controversial" and he wanted to avoid the media attention.

Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, said there were "significant differences" in the evidence Mr Dunlop gave to the tribunal three years ago and the evidence he would give now, and in the different accounts given by Mr Dunlop, Mr Mahony and Mr Fox.

There was no dispute, however, between the three men over the fact that Mr Dunlop had been engaged to lobby for the rezoning and that he was instrumental in getting the motion onto the council's agenda.

Mr Dunlop has told the tribunal the two landowners "knew the way the world worked" and what he would have to do to get their land rezoned. Ms Dillon said this carried the "clear inference" that Mr Fox and Mr Mahony knew money would have to be paid to councillors to achieve this. However, Mr Mahony was "adamant" that the money he paid to Mr Dunlop was a professional fee. Mr Fox has denied paying any money to the lobbyist, she said.

In the 1991 development plan for County Dublin, Mr Mahony's land was zoned agricultural, while Mr Fox's land was zoned agricultural and green belt. In December that year, the council received a rezoning submission for the lands prepared at the request of Mr Wright, counsel said.

Mr Dunlop claimed he was employed in circumstances where Mr Wright had "made a mess of it". Two days before the deadline for motions on rezoning on March 12th, 1993, he said he met Mr Mahony and Mr Fox in the Shelbourne Hotel for the first time and was paid £10,000. Within two days, after a series of meetings between the lobbyist and councillors, the rezoning motion was submitted, signed by Cllrs Liam Creaven and Michael Joe Cosgrave, Mr Wright, Mr Gilbride and Mr Gallagher.

The payment to Mr Wright was made in the visitors' bar in Leinster House in March or April 1993. The payments to other councillors were made "in the environs" of the council offices on O'Connell Street. He alleged that he paid £1,000 to Cllr Larkin, £1,000 to Cllr Gallagher and a "composite" payment of £2,000 to Cllr Gilbride for help in several rezonings including Drumnigh.

While denying the £2,000 bribe alleged by Mr Dunlop, Mr Wright has told the tribunal he received a £3,000 political donation from the lobbyist in October 1993.

In April 1993, councillors voted in favour of a Green Party motion to preserve the green belt in north Dublin. This meant that a portion of Mr Fox's land zoned green belt could not be rezoned. However, Mr Fox had already decided to withdraw his lands from the rezoning motion and the council passed a motion to this effect in the same month. At the same meeting, councillors voted by 28 votes to 11 to rezone Mr Mahony's land.

The rezoning proved highly controversial, and 2,530 objections were lodged. The county manager recommended it be reversed but councillors defeated, by 28 votes to 24, an attempt to achieve this at a meeting in September 1993.

Mr Dunlop said he met Mr Mahony in February 1994 to seek a success fee. Mr Mahony asked him if all the £10,000 had been spent and said he couldn't believe rezoning could cost so much, according to Mr Dunlop.