Knowledge of payments denied

Mahon tribunal: Monarch Properties, the company at the centre of the tribunal's investigation into the rezoning of land at Cherrywood in south Dublin in the early 1990s, has denied knowing that lobbyist Frank Dunlop was paying money to councillors on its behalf.

Monarch executives Richard Lynn and Phil Reilly will say they had "no idea" Mr Dunlop was paying money to councillors to secure the rezoning, their lawyers told the tribunal yesterday.

Mark Sanfey SC, for the company, said Mr Dunlop was hired because he was a top lobbyist with a great reputation for getting things done. He was "the heaviest gun available".

Mr Dunlop agreed he was hired to "add value" to the company's attempts to secure the rezoning. He did not know whether Monarch executives knew that his modus operandi was to pay councillors.

He has alleged he paid two councillors, Tony Fox and Colm McGrath, £2,000 each for their support; both politicians deny the claim. In total, Monarch paid Mr Dunlop more than £80,000 for his work on the Cherrywood project.

Mr Sanfey said that while it was fairly clear that Mr Dunlop had not claimed that anyone in Monarch had specifically referred to payments, he had drawn "certain inferences" from alleged comments by Mr Lynn.

He had, for example, alleged that Mr Lynn had told him: "When you think about the amount of money being spent, you would think these idiots would get their act together."

Mr Dunlop replied that the remark had stuck in his mind and he had given a personal interpretation of it. He didn't mean to impute anything of a derogatory nature to Mr Lynn.

Cross-examining Mr Dunlop, Mr Sanfey said he had told the tribunal last week that Mr Lynn told him councillors were "costing too much". This was the third remark he had attributed to Mr Lynn but the first time he had alleged that Mr Lynn had made this comment.

He asked if Mr Dunlop was "making it up as you go along". Why hadn't he told tribunal lawyers about this when he was first interviewed in 2000? Mr Dunlop replied that he wasn't making it up. Mr Sanfey said his clients were perturbed to hear Mr Dunlop give evidence about the alleged remark for the first time last week, 13 years after it was alleged to have happened.

Mr Lynn denied making any of the alleged remarks, he said.

Mr Dunlop agreed that it was possible he was confusing different remarks.

He said he had no evidence or knowledge that Mr Lynn or any of the other Monarch executives were paying money to politicians. He never saw any of the Monarch people do this and no one had ever referred to it.

Mr Dunlop also agreed the evidence he gave about contacts between Mr Lynn and Senator Don Lydon during a council meeting in 1993 was contradictory.

Last week, he said Mr Lynn had nodded to Mr Lydon to leave the meeting but later said he couldn't be definite there was contact.