The lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop says he is "1,000 per cent adamant" he didn't discuss the bribing of county councillors with three prominent businessmen who employed him to get their land rezoned.
The businessmen Mr Brian O'Halloran, Mr Gerard Kilcoyne and Prof Austin Darragh engaged Mr Dunlop on two occasions in the 1990s to help rezone their land at Carrickmines in south Dublin.
At this time, Mr Dunlop was also working for Mr James Kennedy, who owned land in the same area.
The lobbyist has told the tribunal he paid over £20,000 to nine councillors to have Mr Kennedy's land rezoned.
In contrast, he says he made one payment of £2,000 to a single councillor in respect of the O'Halloran/Kilcoyne/Darragh lands, and this was not made at the behest of the owners.
Mr Dunlop spent much of yesterday answering questions from tribunal counsel about his involvement with Mr O'Halloran and his colleagues.
Mr John Gallagher SC asked what expertise Mr Dunlop brought to his work for Mr O'Halloran in 1992, for which he was paid £1,500.
Mr Dunlop said he did "virtually nothing" for Mr O'Halloran. He was too busy with other clients.
He advised him which councillors to contact, and Mr O'Halloran did the legwork. Mr Gallagher asked if he had told Mr O'Halloran that money would have to be paid to councillors to get the land rezoned. The witness said he didn't. "I am absolutely 1,000 per cent adamant that he did not raise, I did not raise and we did not discuss the payment of money to councillors."
Mr Gallagher pointed out that one of the councillors whom Mr O'Halloran was advised to contact was Mr Tom Hand, and Mr Dunlop had already said he had paid money to Mr Hand. Did it not occur to him to warn Mr O'Halloran that he might have to "encourage" Mr Hand by giving him money?
Mr Dunlop said it didn't. He had no knowledge of Mr O'Halloran's contacts with Mr Hand.
Mr O'Halloran was "not a happy bunny" after the attempt to rezone the land failed in 1992. "I got the impression that he was distinctly unhappy with the level of work I did for them." The witness said he was not aware at the time that Mr Kennedy and Mr O'Halloran and his colleagues were liaising with each other. He advised each party individually, not collectively. Asked if he had ever considered putting the two parties in touch with each other, he said he didn't.
He didn't believe the various landowners seeking to have their lands rezoned in Carrickmines had "colluded" to achieve their aims.
Mr O'Halloran and his colleagues paid Mr Dunlop £30,000 in 1997 when a second attempt to rezone their land was partially successful.
Earlier, Mr Dunlop said it was "inconceivable" that any Dublin county councillor would be unaware of the lobbying he carried out on behalf of developers.
He said he personally knew all of the 78 members of the Dublin County Council in the early 1990s, and he lobbied virtually all of them during this period.
He attended nearly all the meetings held during the preparation of the 1993 Draft Development Plan at the council's chamber on O'Connell Street.
Asked whether there were any councillors who he would not have lobbied because of their or their party's views on rezoning, Mr Dunlop said there was not. "No matter how opposed one suspected someone was to development, I always found that the best way was to go to them oneself and bell the cat," he said.
Given the physical parameters of the council headquarters, which was too small to accommodate all councillors and had only two narrow exits, it was "impossible" that any councillor would be unaware that lobbyists were active in the lobby of the building, he said.
It was "not a conceivable proposition" that council members would be unaware of his lobbying activities.
