Minster of State for Justice Frank Fahey has told the Mahon tribunal that he is not the person identified in a diary entry which recorded a meeting in March 1993 with lobbyist Frank Dunlop and former Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor.
Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Fahey said he had a "hazy recollection" of receiving a donation of £250 in 1992 from development company Monarch Properties, following a social meeting with a senior executive.
The tribunal is currently investigating how lands owned by Monarch Properties at Cherrywood in south Dublin came to be zoned by Dublin County Council for a higher density of housing than property owned by others in the area. Mr Dunlop had been employed in the early 1990s as a lobbyist by the company.
Mr Fahey said he may have met Mr Dunlop in 1993 but he had no involvement with him about Cherrywood or anything else.
He had never been a member of a local authority in Dublin and knew nothing about Cherrywood. Asked by counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon SC, about a reference in Mr Dunlop's diary to a meeting with an F Fahey in March 1993, the Minister said: "That is not me."
Asked about a second reference to a meeting between Mr Dunlop, Mr Lawlor and a Mr Fahey in the same month, he said it did not refer to him. Asked about a record of a phone call from a Senator Fahey to Mr Dunlop's office in March 1993, the Minister said that he could not recall the number concerned but that he had been a senator at the time and it must have been him.
Fianna Fáil TD Seán Haughey, meanwhile, apologised to the tribunal for failing initially to reveal details of more than £2,000 in donations received from Monarch Properties in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Mr Haughey said he had not believed that the donations were relevant to the tribunal's inquiries as he had not been a member of Dublin County Council and had never heard of Cherrywood.
Former minister for foreign affairs David Andrews told the tribunal that Monarch Properties had donated £1,000 towards a researcher in 1996. He said a separate cheque for £276 provided by the company in 1993 had been in relation to an appeal for Somalia. He believed he had given it to aid agency Goal.
Mr Andrews said he had had nothing to do with the Cherrywood lands and he had never been a member of the county council.
Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ardagh said he had received £1,500 in donations from Monarch Properties and Dunloe Ewart, the company that subsequently took over Monarch Properties' lands.
These included a number of donations of £250 for an annual fund-raising event. He had no recollection of a further £700 set out in company records submitted to the tribunal.
The tribunal heard that a Monarch executive had written a note recommending that the company buy tickets for a fund-raising event run by Mr Ardagh on the basis that "he is, and was, the first to vote". Mr Ardagh said votes were taken on Dublin County Council in alphabetical order and he was always the first to vote as his surname began with A.
Former PD Dáil deputy Helen Keogh said she had returned an unsolicited cheque for £500 sent to her by Monarch Properties in 1992. Ms Dillon maintained that there were records of 13 or 14 donations.
Ms Keogh said the cheque she returned had been sent to her personally at a time when the development plan was under consideration. The remainder had been for official party fund-raisers.
