Dunlop denies lying over Lawlor meeting

Mahon tribunal:Former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop has denied lying to the planning tribunal when he gave evidence in 2000.

On his fifth day at the Quarryvale II module of the tribunal in Dublin Castle, Mr Dunlop said he did not tell "deliberate untruths".

The tribunal had heard that Mr Dunlop paid £112,000 to members of Dublin County Council before the June 1991 local elections and before a vote on Quarryvale lands, which were being developed by businessmen Tom Gilmartin and Owen O'Callaghan.

The payments included three to the late Liam Lawlor, of £40,000, £5,000 and £3,500.

Mr Dunlop was engaged by Mr O'Callaghan to lobby councillors to ensure the rezoning of lands at Quarryvale, now the Liffey Valley shopping centre.

Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC, said Mr Dunlop told the tribunal in May 2000 that at a meeting in April 1991, Liam Lawlor demanded £40,000 and Mr Gilmartin and Mr O'Callaghan were present at the meeting. The meeting was marked in Mr Dunlop's diary for April 25th.

Ms Dillon asked if his evidence of 2000 was true and Mr Dunlop said it was not. "Why did you lie to the tribunal?" she asked.

"I did not come in here and tell deliberate untruths, I may have got the facts wrong," Mr Dunlop said. He said Mr Gilmartin was "definitely, categorically not present" when Mr Lawlor asked for money. He also said he did not believe that the meeting took place on April 25th.

Ms Dillon suggested that the information he gave to the tribunal in 2000 was probably correct, since he was more likely to have had "a fresher, more accurate" recollection of events then.

Mr Dunlop denied that, saying the circumstances in which he gave evidence in May and June 2000 were "quite horrendous".

Ms Dillon asked if it was possible that Mr Lawlor had asked for the money in a back room while Mr Gilmartin was in the front office, as Mr Gilmartin had stated.

Mr Dunlop said it wasn't possible because Mr Lawlor had asked for the money in the office and not in a back room.

The tribunal heard that Mr Dunlop arranged meetings with Mr O'Callaghan and various councillors in advance of a vote on Quarryvale on May 16th, 1991.

An attempt by rival developer Green Properties, the company behind Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, to curtail the Quarryvale project resulted in a compromise motion capping development space on the land.

The motion was signed by the late Tom Hand, then a Fine Gael councillor, as well as by Fianna Fáil councillors Colm McGrath and Michael Hanrahan.

Mr Dunlop said he had agreed to pay £10,000 to Mr Hand to secure his signature on the motion and £10,000 after the motion was accepted.

He said he met Mr Hand in the Gresham Hotel on the day before the crucial vote.

Mr Dunlop also recounted a meeting in the Royal Dublin Hotel, on O'Connell Street next to the council offices, on the day of the Quarryvale vote. He said Mr Gilmartin was present at the meeting along with Mr O'Callaghan and various councillors.

He said Mr Hanrahan was having second thoughts about the Quarryvale motion and described how Mr O'Callaghan, "a shrewd Cork man", "walked up and down O'Connell Street" with Mr Hanrahan for some time discussing his position.

Ms Dillon asked Mr Dunlop if he remembered Mr Gilmartin making a complaint about corruption or threatening to contact the fraud squad while at that meeting. He said he did not.