Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte told the Mahon tribunal this morning that he has no recollection of discussing rezoning land at Ballycullen in south Dublin with political lobbyist Frank Dunlop.
Mr Dunlop gave evidence to the tribunal in which he said he gave Mr Rabbitte IR£3,000 and discussed the rezoning of the lands during a meeting at Mr Rabbitte's home on November 11th, 1992, six days after a general election had been called.
But Mr Rabbitte told the tribunal: "I have no memory at all about Frank Dunlop having a meeting with me about Ballycullen. I would remember that kind of thing."
The Dublin South West TD does not dispute that a meeting took place but questioned the date today, saying it seemed unlikely because Mr Dunlop had complained about being recruited to the Fianna Fáil election team.
Mr Rabbitte referred to a book by former government press adviser and political journalist Sean Duignan that said Mr Dunlop had been recruited after the date in November.
The Labour Party leader, who was a TD for the Democratic Left (DL) at the time, said Mr Dunlop also told him during a heated discussion, at the time the payment was made, that internal research showed Fianna Fáil was going to lose around a dozen seats and that "it was all over".
Mr Rabbitte said he could not have drawn such conclusions so early in the campaign.
During the election, Mr Rabbitte was on Dublin County Council when the Dublin development plan was under review, and Mr Dunlop had been lobbying for the rezoning of the Ballycullen lands.
He initially voted in favour of the rezoning along with his two DL colleagues although they later voted against it because of press reports suggesting there was "something iffy" about it.
Under questioning by Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, Mr Rabbitte said he had written to the tribunal through his solicitors enclosing a Democratic Left bank statement showing a figure of £1,630 as the Dunlop payment.
He said he subsequently informed the tribunal that it was not the correct statement and that a statement later furnished showed the £2,000 that represented the money given to him by Mr Dunlop. A statement of December showed £2,000 was returned to Mr Dunlop a month later.
He said the error occurred because when contacted by the tribunal in May and asked about what he had done with the money, he did not pay much attention to the figure involved. There was "considerable disbelief" on his part at being asked by the tribunal about money that he had shown was returned, he added.
Mr Rabbitte strenuously denied that any portion of the money received was ever lodged in his bank account or his wife Deirdre McDermott's.
A bank statement was shown to the tribunal indicating Ms McDermott - who briefly took the witness stand - had lodged £1,030 to her account on November 30th and Mr Rabbitte had lodged a figure of £500 to his account November 17th. The Dublin South West TD said there was no significance to the figures and that he could not account for his wife's dealings with her bank, in any case.
Ms McDermott told the tribunal that the £1,030, and a further cash lodgment of £700 a short time later, would have consisted of money collected from friends for her husband's election campaign and other money such as child allowance and cash from her psychotherapy business.
The £2,000 received from Mr Dunlop was spent for normal election expenses to save going to the bank, Mr Rabbitte said, but he had already agreed with his director of elections that the money would be returned after the election.
Mr Dunlop was told at the time that the "donation" would be processed through the normal party channels and that it was not necessarily being accepted, Mr Rabbitte said.
Mr Rabbitte disputed Mr Dunlop's evidence to the tribunal in relation to the lobbyist's claim that the cash given amounted to £3,000. He referred to two hand written notes from Mr Dunlop given in evidence to the tribunal in which the lobbyist referred to a cash donation to Mr Rabbitte being returned. "At no stage," Mr Rabbitte said, "does he say a portion".
The Labour leader also said he received a phone call from Mr Dunlop after the tribunal was set up and asked for the figure and thanked him when he was told it was £2,000.