National Toll Roads, which operates the West Link and East Link bridges, made payments totalling £150,000 to the former lobbyist Frank Dunlop, it has emerged.
Tribunal senior counsel Patricia Dillon said the inquiry would be investigating the use of false names and fictitious invoices to generate some of these payments, and a further payment of £30,000 to the late Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor.
The tribunal is also investigating the use of false invoices in two payments totalling £30,000 by Mr Dunlop to Mr Lawlor, and in the payment by Green Property of almost £24,000 to Mr Lawlor.
Between September 1989 and May 1991, Mr Dunlop received seven payments ranging from £5,000 to £60,000 from NTR, according to Ms Dillon in the continuation of her opening statement.
Two of these payments, each for £20,000, were paid to "Barry McCarthy", while a third, for the same amount, was paid to Shefran, a company owned by Mr Dunlop and his wife Sheila, but endorsed to "Barry McCarthy". It is not clear whether this is a real or fictitious name.
Ms Dillon said the tribunal would be investigating whether the use of this name by Mr Dunlop to receive funds was a "once-off event" or was more regularly used for this purpose.
In November 1990, NTR made a cheque payment of £30,000 to Industrial Consultants International, a company name used by Mr Lawlor to receive funds. The money was allegedly paid for work on the Dublin ring-road project; however, a director of Industrial Consultants, Michael Quinn, has told the tribunal the company did no work for NTR. The cheque was lodged to the account of Niall Lawlor, the politician's son.
Ms Dillon said Mr Lawlor received two payments of £13,953 and £10,000 from Green Property, which developed the Blanchardstown town centre. While the signature of Mr Quinn appears on the back of the £10,000 cheque, he says the signature is not his and his company did no work for Green Property.
Mr Lawlor had told the tribunal he believed he had received £35,000 from Green Property's managing director, John Corcoran. The firm said it had "no corporate recollection" of any payment to the politician.
Later, the tribunal established the payments were made not to Mr Lawlor personally but to Economic Reports Ltd, one of his companies, and to Comex Trading Corporation.
Mr Corcoran has told the tribunal he cannot recollect the payment to Economic Reports Ltd but assumes it was for planning consultancy. Mr Lawlor advised the company on planning and land acquisition at Blanchardstown and how to deal with the planning authorities.
While Mr Corcoran did not regard the payment as political, Mr Lawlor has described it as a political donation, Ms Dillon said.
Yesterday's edition stated that Owen O'Callaghan made contributions of £10,000 and £5,000 to Micheál Martin in 1989 and 1991. In fact, the amounts involved were £1,000 and £5,000.
