FF council group whip 'in the pockets of developers'

The whip of the Fianna Fáil group on Dublin County Council, the late Councillor Paddy Dunne, was "in the pocket" of developers in the early 1990s, a former party colleague has claimed.

Former Fianna Fáil councillor Paddy Madigan said Mr Dunne hustled councillors in to vote on motions irrespective of whether they knew anything about the land.

He also claimed Fine Gael was also in the rezoning business and there was collusion between the whips of both parties to get councillors to get "bodies" in to vote at all costs.

Council meetings became a farce with councillors "dragooned" into the council chamber and used as "voting fodder," he told the tribunal yesterday. A councillor had to be a team player, and it was a brave one who would go against what the party had decided during pre-council meetings over Conway's pub.

Mr Madigan, who left Fianna Fáil to stand as an Independent in the 1994 European elections, added: "You would have to be Paul O'Connell to get through the scrum of builders and developers outside."

At council meetings, he was being called on to vote on places he'd never seen and knew nothing about. If the public, had come in to the council chamber they would have ended up with a very poor view of local democracy.

He described one of the lobbyists, Richard Lynn of Monarch Properties, as "obnoxious and aggressive": "I didn't like him at all. I saw him dealing with county councillors, he was leaning on them, he leaned on me too".

The tribunal is investigating the rezoning of Monarch's land at Cherrywood, in south Dublin. The company made payments totalling over £500,000, almost half of it to 69 politicians, in connection with the rezoning.

Monarch says it gave Mr Madigan a cheque for £300 after he looked for support, but the witness said he didn't accept this. "I reject that entirely. I never asked Monarch for money."

Government chief whip Tom Kitt said he and party colleagues Mary Harney and Chris Flood felt uneasy about the trend towards rezoning.

He described the atmosphere at the council as "offensive" and "repulsive" with councillors having to run the gauntlet of developers going into the chamber. Mr Lynn was "quite direct, even aggressive in his approach," he said.

Mr Kitt denied the Fianna Fáil group operated a whip. He had voted against the Fianna Fáil position on occasion and had not been sanctioned for doing so. He acknowledged a £500 donation from Monarch.

Former Dublin lord mayor Michael Keating likened political donations to "a marriage of convenience" between developers and politicians. It suited people fighting elections to receive a donation, though in their own hearts "it would change nothing".

Benefactors may have thought donations would make councillors think they were good people.

However, the donations did not come with any strings attached and in most cases the amounts were modest. Monarch says it gave Mr Keating £2,600 in three payments but Mr Keating said he recollected just one of these payments, for £1,000, which went to his party organisation.

Mr Keating told the Fine Gael inquiry in 2000 that he had no recollection or records of any payments when he was a councillor.

Fianna Fáil councillor Marion McGennis told the tribunal she had no recollection of payments totalling £1,600 from Monarch in the early 1990s.

In 2000, she told a Fianna Fáil inquiry that the largest contributions she got were for a few hundred pounds.

Former Fine Gael councillor Martin Lynch compared the council to "Ballymagash" and said the atmosphere was "bizarre" and "fraught".

He described his time on the council as a strange, surreal experience and said he suspected some councillors were getting too close to developers.

Former independent councillor Seán Lyons said he never got money from Frank Dunlop and received two contributions of £250 each from Richard Lynn of Monarch.

Mr Dunlop has told the tribunal he gave Mr Lyons £500 or £1,000. Separately, documentation from Monarch indicated payments totalling £1,850 to Mr Lyons, and Mr Lynn made a further payment of £500 when he went to work for Dunloe Ewart.

Mr Lyons said he had no recollection of receiving any money from Mr Dunlop.

He agreed that his estimate of payments from Mr Lynn was clearly incorrect.