Lydon dismisses Dunlop's 'crazy' phonetap claims

Fianna Fáil senator Mr Don Lydon has dismissed as "crazy" a claim he warned Mr Frank Dunlop the Flood tribunal was tapping his telephone.

Mr Dunlop told the tribunal last December the warning was a made in 1997 in a car outside St John of God's Hospital, Stillorgan, Co Dublin, where Mr Lydon was a senior consultant psychologist.

The former government press secretary alleges Mr Lydon had contacted him, anxious to speak privately about the inquiry in Dublin Castle. He claims Mr Lydon had told him "to be careful about what I said".

"That's crazy talk," Mr Lydon countered this afternoon. He said the conversation did not take place, and in any case, he never believed the tribunal had the power or inclination to intercept anyone's calls.

"This is off-the-wall evidence," which cannot be backed up. Why, asked the senator, was there no record of this meeting in Mr Dunlop's diary, when Mr Dunlop was a man who "made a note...if he even phoned somebody?"

Mr Dunlop alleges he was asked for £5,000 by Mr Lydon in return for his support for a motion to rezone lands owned by Paisley Park in Carrickmines in 1992. He says he eventually paid over £3,000, a claim Mr Lydon denies.

Mr Lydon did admit receiving two payments, one of £250 in 1991 for the local council elections and the second for £1,000 for the Seanad elections of 1993. He said he only remembered the second when Mr Dunlop telephoned him to warn him the tribunal was aware of it.

However, he insisted these were legitimate, unsolicited political donations, and were nothing to do with his support for any planning motions. Nor, he said, was he ever swayed by any lobbying from developers or landowners, either through drinks and meals or direct financial payments.

"I'd always do what I thought was right in the final analysis," he said, adding that he would only vote for a motion "on the basis that it was something good for the area, that it would help people".

With regard to the 108-acre plot owned by Paisley Park, and subsequently Jackson Way Properties, that are at the centre of this module of the Flood tribunal's inquiries, Mr Lydon said his decision to support its rezoning was based on these principles of doing the right thing.

The land was prime industrial land which complied with all the criteria laid down by the IDA, he said, and even the Dublin County planner agreed it should be rezoned. He also argued it was an opportunity for Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Council to levy some much-needed rates. There was a dearth of industrial activity in the area, and the council could "squeeze" no more money out of businesses in Sandyford industrial estate and Dundrum, he said.