Dunne tells of approach to Lowry over rent

The former supermarket tycoon, Mr Ben Dunne, told the tribunal it was not the case that he asked Mr Michael Lowry to help him get an increase in the rent being paid by Telecom Éireann for an office block Mr Dunne owned.

Mr Dunne said he had asked Mr Lowry in early 1995 if he in turn could ask Mr Mark FitzGerald, of Sherry FitzGerald estate agents, to do something to speed up a rent review then under way.

The arbitrator involved in the review was an employee of Sherry FitzGerald, Mr Gordon Gill. He said the idea of calling Mr Lowry had come to mind because both Mr Lowry and Mr FitzGerald were "Fine Gaelers".

The tribunal has heard from Mr FitzGerald that he was told by Mr Lowry that Mr Dunne was looking for a 100 per cent rent increase on the office-block.

Mr Dunne told Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that his contact with Mr Lowry "looked terrible" but that it had been done spontaneously and that at the time he had not considered the fact that Mr Lowry, as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, was, in effect, the tenant.

He also said that at the time he made the contact, he had not been thinking of the fact that Mr Lowry had received covert personal payments from Mr Dunne or that he, Mr Dunne, had made substantial political donations to Fine Gael. He said he had sought a favour from Mr Lowry, but not a political favour.

The tribunal heard that a company associated with Mr Dunne and his family, Barkisland Ltd, had bought Marlborough House, Marlborough Street, Dublin, in 1994/1995. The building was purchased for £5.4 million from New Ireland Assurance.

At the time Mr Dunne signed the contract to buy the building, the vendors and Telecom Éireann were negotiating a new rent level. Mr Gill was subsequently appointed arbitrator.

Mr Dunne said he felt that quicker progress needed to be made in relation to the review. When he heard that Mr Gill of Sherry FitzGerald had been appointed, he telephoned Mr Lowry. He said he never told Mr Lowry that he wanted the rent increased from £5 per square foot to £10 per square foot.

He said a few days later Mr Lowry got back to him and told him that Mr FitzGerald had said he was not in a position to progress the matter. He said he had never requested political favours from Mr Lowry, though he may have sought GAA tickets from him. Mr Dunne was asked why he did not ask the property advisers acting for him in relation to the building to ask Mr Gill if the process could be accelerated. He said it was the way he operated - to pick up the phone "spontaneously" and ring someone and ask can matters be speeded up. He would have made such calls in his previous employment, with Dunnes Stores. He still acted like that.

He said Mr Lowry's name had come to mind spontaneously. "Reading this [his statement] it looks terrible but that is the way I do business, sir." Asked if he realised that Mr Lowry was the tenant, Mr Dunne said the idea "was there but it wasn't in the front of my mind". Mr Coughlan said Mr FitzGerald had told the tribunal that Mr Lowry, in raising the review, had said Mr Dunne was looking for an increase in rent from £5 per square foot to £10 per square foot.

This was "close enough" to the submission made on Mr Dunne's behalf to the rent review. "I can't disagree with that," said Mr Dunne. When Mr Coughlan said it appeared likely that Mr Dunne had mentioned a figure to Mr Lowry, Mr Dunne said that to the best of his recollection, he was sure he had not. Mr Dunne said that asking Mr Lowry to ask Mr FitzGerald if the arbitration could be speeded up was the sort of favour he would come across every week.

Mr Coughlan said that Mr Dunne's relationship with the then minister existed in the context of covert payments to Mr Lowry and contributions to Fine Gael. It was in that context that Mr Dunne had felt he could contact Mr Lowry.

"I know what you are saying and I can't disagree with you, but that was not the way I was thinking," Mr Dunne said. "I didn't think of all the points you are making now." Mr Dunne later added that he had first come to know Mr Lowry by doing business with him.

He later said he could not agree that he asked Mr Lowry for a favour in the context of payments he'd made to Mr Lowry and Fine Gael. Mr Dunne told Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for Mr Dunne, that he drew a distinction between a political favour and a favour. What he sought was a favour. He said he and Mr Lowry never discussed political favours.