Ex-councillor got £16,500

Mr Sean Gilbride received £16,500 from three sources between 1991 and 1997, the Fianna Fail report in payments to politicians said. The then councillor for the Balbriggan area was offered financial support by Mr Owen O'Callaghan in 1992 after he took a year's leave of absence from his job "for health reasons and to give more time to political life".

According to the report, having expected a tax rebate of about £6,000 that year, he received only £1,000. Mr O'Callaghan was said to have offered him financial support of £13,500 over a nine-month period. "He stated he never asked for anything, nor had he sought any inducement for his vote," the report said. "He stated he was proud of the Quarryvale project and was very much pro-development."

On his relationship with Mr Tom Gilmartin, Mr Gilbride said he recalled meeting him in relation to his Quarryvale proposals. He had known Mr Gilmartin since childhood and had introduced him to Mr Colm McGrath, the then Fianna Fail councillor for Clondalkin.

During the 1991 local election campaign, he received a £2,000 cash donation from Mr Frank Dunlop. Mr Gilbride ran for the Seanad in 1997 and received a cheque for £1,000 from Mr Michael Bailey. He later returned £500.

Mr Gilbride said he was a strong supporter of the Quarryvale project, believing it "offered the only real possibility of jobs and progress in the area, which had serious unemployment problems", the report said.