Quinn dismisses news report

The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, yesterday rejected Fianna Fail claims that his past business associations and political…

The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, yesterday rejected Fianna Fail claims that his past business associations and political fund-raising conflict with his calls for a lobbyists' register and a ban on corporate funding of politics.

He dismissed as "dirty tricks" a newspaper report that he had lobbied Mr Liam Lawlor TD on behalf of an architectural firm he was representing. Mr Lawlor's claim, made in the Dail last January and also reported in The Irish Times in April, is that Mr Quinn had sought an contract for the company, Murray O'Laoire, from him when he (Mr Lawlor) was a director of a Goodman firm.

Mr Dick Roche TD of Fianna Fail yesterday accused Mr Quinn of engaging in "undeclared lobbying activities" which conflicted with his calls for a register of lobbyists. He said an architecture firm in which Mr Quinn was once a partner had been deeply involved in the plan for a casino in the Phoenix Park, despite Labour's opposition.

Mr Quinn yesterday rejected the claims. He confirmed he had had a conversation with Mr Lawlor between 1987 and 1989. "I said to him that if he was in a position to invite tenders for architectural contracts the firm I was representing would be interested in tendering for work."

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He also maintained that a report in yesterday's Irish In- dependent concerning his dealings with the proposed casino promoters was "disingenuous". The report said he had met two directors several times when he was Minister for Finance, and that these directors had thought Mr Quinn to be "helpful".

The report also said the architectural firm Burke Kennedy Doyle, with which Mr Quinn worked until 1982, had received "substantial fees" from the casino promoters. Mr Quinn said he had met the casino promoters as minister because he had responsibility for gaming and lotteries legislation with the Minister for Justice. This was in the official records. He had nothing to do with the architectural firm involved since 1982, he said.