Senator admits getting extra €2,600 payment

Mahon tribunal:Fianna Fáil Senator Don Lydon yesterday admitted the existence of a further payment of €2,600 (IR£2000) which he received from property developer Chris Jones in 1993.

Senator Lydon had previously acknowledged payments from Mr Jones amounting to €9,100 (IR£7,000) in the period 1992 to 1993.

Responding to questions at the Mahon tribunal, Senator Lydon acknowledged Mr Jones had sought rezoning of land at Ballycullen, Co Dublin, at the time, but he saw no connection between his role as a councillor having oversight of such rezonings and the payment of money to him by Mr Jones.

Asked directly by Judge Alan Mahon if he thought there may be an issue of "the perception" such payments at that time would create, he replied that the "reality was different to the perception". He said "Mr Jones was a very kind and generous man who gave money at different times to various councillors".

Senator Lydon continued: "There was no intention - he didn't say 'I'll give you this if you do that', that never happened at all."

He added, "He was just that kind of fella", and went on to remark that "if he would give me money again I would take it".

He agreed with Judge Mahon that ethics regulations had since changed the rules on councillors accepting money from developers, but added that "in those days people could get any amount of money from anybody".

Recounting the history of the previously unpublicised payment, counsel for the tribunal said the cheque was made out to cash and the only identifying mark of the payee was a bank account number on the back. The number corresponded with a savings account belonging to Senator Lydon and his wife.

Mr Jones's land was rezoned by the council in October 1993. Senator Lydon and Mr Jones subsequently had an exchange of letters in which Mr Jones thanked the senator for his support for the rezoning, and a meeting between the two was arranged.

Senator Lydon said a diary note relating to December 8th, 1993, possibly referred to a lunch between the two. The cheque was dated December 9th, 1993.

In disclosing his accounts to the tribunal, Senator Lydon said he had not been aware that the page in a bank statement detailing this payment was missing. A similar set of accounts disclosed to the tribunal by the senator's bank also omitted this page.

Senator Lydon said that because the payment did not appear on either set of accounts, he had no record of it and did not recall it. Asked why this cheque should have been made out to cash, Senator Lydon said Mr Jones did that with his personal accounts. Asked about the rezoning of lands for the Dundrum Town Centre in 1992, Senator Lydon said he had not been given €1,300 by the lobbyist Frank Dunlop in order to sign a rezoning motion. He maintained he had signed it because the development was necessary.

Earlier Judge Gerald Keys said the tribunal was frustrated by witnesses who declared their intention to be helpful, but who subsequently failed to reveal significant matters. Judge Keys addressed his comments to property consultant Richard Lynn who previously told the tribunal that he had not received a "success" payment following his advocacy for rezoning land at Cherrywood in south Dublin.

In response to Patricia Dillon SC for the tribunal yesterday, Mr Lynn acknowledged he had in fact received such a payment, but he said he had not mentioned it, because it had been paid by a subsequent owner of the land. His advocacy, he said, was for Monarch properties and payment was ultimately made by the development company Dunloe, which took over many of Monarch Properties' assets.