Lawlor accuses tribunal of having 'no objective evidence'

Mahon Tribunal:Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor has again denied having any interest in the Jackson Way land at Carrickmines and has accused the tribunal of acting as "judge and jury" in his case.

In a 90-minute response to the tribunal's opening statement on the ownership of the Carrickmines land, Mr Lawlor claimed the statement was so error-strewn and judgemental as to make it impossible for him to receive fair treatment.

He said he had never asked for or taken a corrupt payment. The tribunal should take "a long, hard look" at the question of prolonging the current module, which was "going nowhere".

The current hearings were a "wagon" to which the tribunal legal team had hitched itself to prove wrongdoing on his part. As a result, the tribunal now found itself, in the words of former chairman Mr Justice Flood, "like lost Arabs wandering around in the desert".

"The tribunal legal team is wandering around the remains of Carrickmines Castle and its piseogs and other leprechaun haunts, searching for some invisible crock of wrongdoing on my part. I am not in a position to oblige."

He said the former Government press secretary, Mr Frank Dunlop, has told the tribunal he was told by businessman Mr Jim Kennedy that Mr Lawlor had an interest in the Carrickmines land. However, Mr Dunlop added that he had no direct proof or knowledge of this.

Mr Lawlor said there was "no objective evidence" to prove he had any beneficial interest whatsoever in the lands. The opening statement had broken almost every rule and regulation governing the conduct of tribunals of inquiry, he claimed.

Calling on the tribunal chairman to "bring finality" to the issue in his report, he said a finding that he had no interest in the land would amount to a victory for the Oireachtas, the former Dublin County Council and the public generally. "It will show that one of its representatives acted with propriety and integrity," he said.

Mr Lawlor acknowledged giving "very limited advice" to a constituent (Mr Kennedy) and his advisors, but pointed out that he had voted on the council to the detriment of the owners of the Carrickmines lands.

Referring to recent leaks from the tribunal, the former TD said it was "no longer credible" for the tribunal legal team to maintain control of documentation which was denied to him and other witnesses.

Mr Lawlor said Mr O'Neill in his opening statement "attempted to gather threads from a whole series of completely unrelated matters to stitch together a kind of patchwork quit which he then uses to arrive at opinions and conclusions regarding me".

Accusing tribunal counsel of adopting a "wholly adversarial" approach to him, Mr Lawlor said the tribunal's legal team had pre-judged the issues and arrived at a verdict before hearing the evidence.

"They have acted as judge and jury and have given their verdict via their opinions that Lawlor has an ownership or interest in the lands. The media circus that surrounds this tribunal have benefited from many of the leaks and stories about my purported interest and because of the stance taken by tribunal counsel, have reached their conclusions some time ago."

Mr Lawlor also accused tribunal lawyers of trying to have "an each-way bet" on the ownership of the Carrickmines lands. Their "exit strategy" was to say that efforts to establish ownership have ended at the door of Isadore Goldman, a firm of London solicitors used by Mr Lawlor.

As a former Dáil deputy and councillor, Mr Lawlor said he had to make statutory declarations on land ownership, company shareholdings and consultancies.

However, the tribunal's opening statement appeared to suggest he had broken these rules, a most serious allegation to level against him. He went on to question why some witnesses were being called and others and called on the tribunal to release the transcripts of all private interviews where his name had arisen.

In his opening statement, Mr O'Neill said the tribunal planned to look at a series of "seemingly unrelated land transactions" in Co Dublin in the 1980s, in which Mr Lawlor was involved with Mr Kennedy. This would help determine whether Mr Lawlor had a claim on the profits from developing the Carrickmines land.