Fees to Dunlop 'not above board'

Businessman Mr Denis Mahony has conceded that the two payments he made to lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop could be described as "hidden and clandestine" and were not "above board".

He admitted the cash payments of £10,000 in 1993 and £2,000 in 1994 were "unusual" but denied there was anything "untoward" in them.

"It was not a normal way to do business," he told Mr Colm Allen SC, for Mr Dunlop, because the payments were in cash and were not documented, "but I had absolutely no idea that they would be used to pay county councillors."

Mr Mahony rejected an assertion by Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, that the payments were not legitimate, but he accepted they were not surrounded by the documents normally found in a commercial transaction, such as invoices, cheque receipts and audit files.

Mr Mahony said £10,000 was paid to Mr Dunlop in April 1993 as a professional fee for lobbying councillors to get his land at Drumnigh, in north Co Dublin, rezoned.

He paid the lobbyist a further £2,000 reluctantly in February 1994 after Mr Dunlop sought a "success fee".

He denied feeling "blackmailed" by Mr Dunlop to pay the success fee even though he was annoyed at the request. Mr Dunlop had pointed out his success in getting the land rezoned and said it had involved extra work. "I told him I didn't want anything to do with that. We had a deal and it was over," he said.

Mr Mahony described their discussion as "a reasonable argument between two people who called it absolutely differently".

Asked why he didn't hang up when Mr Dunlop originally rang to ask for the fee, he replied: "I'm not like that. It didn't make sense to me and I didn't enjoy it" but he ultimately paid the £2,000 to "close off" the entire deal and to try to make it as "amicable" as possible.

He was not in the practice of making enemies. He "didn't understand" why this payment was made in cash.

Ms Dillon said the two transactions were untraceable. Mr Mahony had made the payments in cash, taken from his personal safe rather than withdrawn from a bank.

In dealing with Mr Dunlop in a way which was completely different from normal business procedures, he knew there was "something wrong" with the transactions.

On any objective analysis, these were secret and clandestine transactions.

This was not the way Mr Mahony normally did business.

Asked how he had given Mr Dunlop the £10,000, Mr Mahony said he did not remember. He had presumably placed it in a package and Mr Dunlop had taken it without counting the notes.

Mr Mahony said he was was not aware of allegations of corruption which were circulating at the time, but Mr Allen said this "beggared belief".