The Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, who has admitted that he received money from Mr Frank Dunlop, has denied emphatically that he is the politician who is receiving "ongoing" payments.
At the Flood tribunal yesterday, Mr Dunlop said that payments from the bank account he used to pay politicians and for his own personal use were "ongoing" in relation to one politician.
Contacted by The Irish Times last night, Mr Lawlor said: "I know nothing about it." Asked if he was the politician referred to, he said: "Most positively not." It is understood that the Fine Gael internal inquiry prompted by Mr Dunlop's evidence last month has found no evidence so far of any party member receiving ongoing payments. An interim report of the inquiry, chaired by Mr James Nugent SC, has been sent to the Flood tribunal containing this information. The inquiry is continuing to examine whether any councillor or former councillor has received, or is receiving, such payments.
Mr Lawlor said last night he was not aware of what Mr Dunlop had told the tribunal yesterday. Asked last night whether he was among the politicians who Mr Dunlop says tried to contact him since he gave his evidence last month, he said he would "answer all these questions at the appropriate time and place".
Mr Lawlor last month acknowledged receiving money from Mr Dunlop but said he could not say how much this was, only that it was for legitimate political purposes.
Asked if he believed he might have been the politician described by Mr Dunlop as a "powerful individual" who received £48,500, he said he was still checking his records on the matter and would deal fully with it at the tribunal.
During his evidence yesterday Mr Dunlop made several references to a person who had had a "quasi-management role" in some of the proposed developments. This person had also introduced a number of developers to Mr Dunlop, and these developers had subsequently paid Mr Dunlop money in connection with their attempted rezonings, he told the tribunal.