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PÁDRAIG FLYNN: Corruptly sought and received £50,000

PÁDRAIG FLYNN: Corruptly sought and received £50,000

PÁDRAIG FLYNN, the former government minister and EU commissioner, corruptly sought and received a payment of £50,000 from the developer Tom Gilmartin in 1989, the report found.

In addition to making a finding of corruption against Mr Flynn, the tribunal also said that other sums of £77,000 lodged by Mr Flynn into non-resident accounts in London along with the £50,000 remained unaccounted for.

The three judges accepted Mr Gilmartin’s evidence that the £50,000 payment had been a donation to Fianna Fáil made through Mr Flynn and not a personal donation to him.

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“Mr Flynn wrongfully and in the circumstances corruptly sought a donation from Mr Gilmartin for the FF party,” the inquiry concluded.

“Mr Flynn having being paid £50,000 by Mr Gilmartin for the Fianna Fáil party proceeded wrongfully to use the money for his own personal benefit,” it went on.

Contacted at Mr Flynn’s home yesterday, his daughter the former TD Beverley Flynn said that the family would be making no comment until they had read the report.

The report also described Mr Flynn’s explanation of how he handled Mr Gilmartin’s payment, and other sums, as “astounding, incredible and untrue”.

The tribunal dealt with the £50,000 payment in the chapter surrounding the development of the Quarryvale project (now Liffey Valley shopping centre) in the late 1980s, when Mr Flynn was minister for the environment.

The tribunal, in its findings, accepted all of the evidence given by Mr Gilmartin in this regard and rejected that given by Mr Flynn when conflicts arose between their respective accounts.

The report also concluded that the £50,000 was lodged by Mr Flynn and his wife Dorothy into an account in Chiswick, London which designated them as non-resident. It said it found the evidence of both on this account to be incredible and untrue.

In all the couple, held three non-resident accounts with lodgements totalling £155,278.

“None of the lodgements appeared to relate to the salary or income of Mr Flynn,” it said.

Mr Gilmartin told national organiser Seán Sherwin of the payment at a later meeting but the matter was not pursued at the time.

Mr Sherwin brought up the matter with incoming taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1992, the tribunal found. Mr Reynolds told the tribunal he had no recollection of being so informed.

ALBERT REYNOLDS: Abused political power in seeking £80,000 donation

THE TRIBUNAL found no evidence that former taoiseach Albert Reynolds had received two payments from developer Owen O’Callaghan as had been claimed.

However, it was critical of the former Fianna Fáil leader for writing to the Cork developer seeking a substantial donation at a time when he was lobbying the government.

Mr Reynolds and his then minister for finance Bertie Ahern had written to Mr O’Callaghan, seeking a big donation for the party in 1993.

At that time, Mr O’Callaghan had been lobbying in support of a stadium project in Neilstown, Dublin.

The request culminated in an £80,000 payment to the party.

The tribunal found that pressurising a businessman who was lobbying the government to support his project was “entirely inappropriate, and was an abuse of political power and government authority”. It was “remarkable” behaviour, the tribunal noted. “Mr O’Callaghan felt himself compelled to make this substantial payment to the Fianna Fáil party . . . to secure government support and financial assistance for the stadium project.”

Meanwhile, the tribunal said it was satisfied that Mr Reynolds did not receive a £150,000 payment from Mr O’Callaghan in 1994, or on any other occasion.

Developer Tom Gilmartin had told the tribunal that Mr O’Callaghan told him that the payment had been made at a private fundraising dinner in Cork on March 11th, 1994, when Mr Reynolds was taoiseach.

The tribunal also found no evidence Mr Reynolds had received a separate £40,000 payment from Mr O’Callaghan. Mr Gilmartin had told the tribunal he had been told by an anonymous source that Mr Reynolds had received £40,000 in connection with the Golden Island shopping centre development in Athlone. In a 2006 letter to the tribunal, Mr Reynolds described the claim as “entirely without foundation and an outrageous allegation”.

The tribunal said it was satisfied that Seán Sherwin, then Fianna Fáil national organiser, told Mr Reynolds about the £50,000 payment made by Tom Gilmartin to Pádraig Flynn for Fianna Fáil, at a time when Mr Reynolds was preparing to select his cabinet in 1992. It noted that neither Mr Reynolds nor his colleagues raised this with Mr Flynn at any time before the tribunal was established.

Mr Reynolds gave evidence to the tribunal and was recalled to give additional evidence on the Quarryvale module. But he was excused after submitting medical information he was medically unfit to do so because of cognitive impairment.

OWEN O'CALLAGHAN: Approved or made corrupt payments of £120,000

THE CORK-BASED developer personally made or authorised corrupt payments totalling almost £120,000 to politicians for their support, the tribunal has found.

It also said that over a 10-year period, from 1991 to 2001, he paid over £1.8 million “to or for the benefit of” lobbyist Frank Dunlop through his companies Riga Ltd and Barkhill Ltd. The monies were paid to Mr Dunlop’s company Shefran Ltd and to Frank Dunlop and Associates.

The tribunal did not accept that Mr O’Callaghan was unaware of the “corrupt” activity of Mr Dunlop in paying councillors to support the rezoning of Mr O’Callaghan’s development at Quarryvale, now the Liffey Valley centre.

The tribunal was satisfied Mr O’Callaghan paid money to the late councillor Seán Gilbride, and former councillors GV Wright, John O’Halloran and Colm McGrath to ensure “their continued support and assistance” for the rezoning.

He also paid the late Liam Lawlor, who was a TD and a councillor, £41,000 between 1991 and 1996, the report found.

Mr O’Callaghan was a business partner of Sligo-born developer Tom Gilmartin, who began the Quarryvale project.

He was called to give evidence after Mr Gilmartin made allegations about his payments to politicians.

The tribunal recognised the possibility that Mr O’Callaghan may have been, initially, “a reluctant participant” in the corrupt activity, the report said. But “Mr O’Callaghan nevertheless readily embraced and adopted the strategy”, which was “espoused by Mr Dunlop and Mr Lawlor”.

The tribunal was satisfied “at least some of the payments made by Mr Dunlop on the part of Mr O’Callaghan” were an attempt to influence councillors in the performance of their duties and were “corrupt”.

The report also said Mr O’Callaghan “felt himself compelled” to make a payment of £80,000 to the Fianna Fail party in 1993 after being asked to do so by then taoiseach Albert Reynolds and then minister for finance Bertie Ahern.

Mr O’Callaghan was concerned that a failure to do so would “impact negatively on his efforts to secure government support” for a separate project, a stadium at Neilstown, Dublin.

Following the publication of the report, Mr O’Callaghan said he utterly rejected its the findings. He also said he would seek a judicial review in the High Court. “The tribunal arrived at its conclusions based on procedures which by any reasonable criteria have been biased, unfair and unjust,” he said.

TOM GILMARTIN: Decision to make payment 'entirely inappropriate'

SLIGO-BORN DEVELOPER Tom Gilmartin gave evidence to the planning tribunal “in the honest belief that such evidence was true and accurate”, its report has said.

It upheld many of the allegations made by Mr Gilmartin, including that the late Liam Lawlor asked him for £100,000 and a 20 per cent stake in his business, and that Cork developer Owen O’Callaghan had told Mr Gilmartin he made payments totalling £80,000 to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

It also accepted that former minister Pádraig Flynn received £50,000 from Mr Gilmartin in April 1989 to “ease or remove obstacles” in relation to one of Mr Gilmartin’s planning developments. The decision to make the payment was “misconceived and entirely inappropriate”, but the tribunal accepted circumstances included “an element of duress or coercion”. And it believed Mr Gilmartin intended the cheque for Fianna Fáil.

Originally from Sligo, Mr Gilmartin moved to Britain in 1957, where he became a successful developer. Most of the evidence he gave to the tribunal related to the Quarryvale development, which subsequently became known as the Liffey Valley shopping centre.

Mr O’Callaghan became involved in this project, and Mr Gilmartin detailed his dealings with him. Mr Gilmartin also gave evidence in relation to a site at Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin city centre, known as Arlington.

The report said of all the witnesses called by the tribunal, it was Mr Gilmartin’s credibility that was subjected to the “most sustained attack”.

As a witness, Mr Gilmartin often exhibited “a sense of bitterness, frustration and anger”, the tribunal said.

His attitude toward Mr O’Callaghan “was one of intense dislike and deep contempt, clouded by a rarely concealed bitterness”.

It was apparent to the tribunal that Mr Gilmartin “conflated different pieces of information provided to him by different sources”, the report continued. This meant Mr Gilmartin’s identification of sources to the tribunal was “not always accurate, not always consistent”. It did not seek to verify everything Mr Gilmartin said but accepted Mr Gilmartin gave evidence “in the honest belief that such evidence was true and accurate”.

Over a 58-day period in the witness box in Dublin Castle, having been granted immunity from prosecution, Mr Gilmartin outlined the details of what he knew about corruption in planning.

FRANK DUNLOP: Unreliable witness who spent £500,000 in bribes

THE INQUIRY rejected much of Frank Dunlop’s evidence and found he had in excess of £500,000 in cash at his disposal to pay local politicians between 1990 and 1993 during the drafting of development plans for the Dublin area.

After initially thwarting the work of the tribunal, Mr Dunlop reversed his position in April 2000 and acknowledged the role he played in making payments to councillors and named individuals involved in wrongful activity with him.

But the tribunal found Mr Dunlop did not make the transition from “an untruthful witness to a truthful witness” with any sense of completeness.

He continued to “actively and purposefully mislead” the tribunal, particularly in relation to his contention that developer Owen O’Callaghan was unaware of his corrupt activity.

Mr Dunlop was involved in corrupt payments to councillors for the rezoning of land in Carrickmines, Cherrywood, Lissenhall and Baldoyle, among other areas. The highest-profile case was Quarryvale, where the tribunal found he made corrupt payments of up to £170,000 to local politicians between 1991 and 1993 to interfere with the planning process. These payments were made on behalf of Mr O’Callaghan to secure councillors’ support for the rezoning of Quarryvale lands.

The tribunal rejected evidence that most of this money was for professional fees for Mr Dunlop as a lobbyist.

It also rejected Mr Dunlop’s claim that he was unable to recollect the amounts of payments and identities of all the politicians who received money. When Mr Dunlop produced his diaries to the tribunal covering the years 1991 to 1993, it found they contained “many heavily obliterated” entries.

The tribunal found this was an attempt to conceal information, in particular financial links between himself, Mr O’Callaghan and Fianna Fáil politician Liam Lawlor.

Only rarely, if ever, did Mr Dunlop need to brief councillors on the merits of a rezoning proposal. As the tribunal found: “In reality, the money did the talking.”

LIAM LAWLOR: Corruptly sold political influence for money

FIANNA FÁIL TD Liam Lawlor abused his role as an elected representative by corruptly selling his influence for financial reward, the tribunal said.

The tribunal estimated he received payments totalling at least £400,000 from lobbyists, developers or landowners.

While he described this income as consultancy fees or political donations, the tribunal found most of these payments were either “inappropriate, improper or corrupt”.

The Dublin West deputy’s frequent demands for substantial sums of money to help to win rezoning decisions rendered him “hopelessly compromised”, the report says.

He also failed on many occasions to give truthful evidence to the tribunal and to comply with discovery requests for documents.

Among the highest-profile rezoning cases Mr Lawlor was involved in was Quarryvale, where the tribunal found he was proactively engaged with property developer Owen O’Callaghan in promoting the project during the early 1990s.

Mr Lawlor – a councillor up to 1991 and a TD until 2002 – received £150,000 between 1991 and 1998 from lobbyist Frank Dunlop, mostly for his involvement with rezoning land in the area, the report states.

He also received £41,000 from property developer Owen O’Callaghan between 1991 and 1996, according to the tribunal.

It was satisfied Mr Lawlor’s relationship with Mr Dunlop was “firmly based in corruption and that the bulk of funds paid by Mr Dunlop and Mr O’Callaghan to Mr Lawlor were . . . corrupt”.

He also either sought or received significant sums of corrupt payments for using his political influence to help rezone land at Cherrywood, Ballycullen/ Beachill and Carrickmines, among other areas.

In a planned development at Bachelors Walk in Dublin, Mr Lawlor received €75,000 after convincing UK-based developers Arlington he was a government representative and that failure on their part to make payments to him might result in a lack of support for the project. These demands were “entirely inappropriate and corrupt”.