TD says he was not aware Dunlop was FF fundraiser

Mahon tribunal: Fianna Fáil TD and former party financial controller Seán Flemming has told the Mahon tribunal that he was not aware that lobbyist Frank Dunlop was involved in fundraising for Fianna Fáil.

Mr Flemming said he had "never heard" of Mr Dunlop having a role in fundraising and any claims that Mr Dunlop was asked to seek donations for Fianna Fáil were "a mystery to me", he said.

Mr Flemming was answering questions in relation to the "pick-me-up" system of funding used by Fianna Fáil from the 1960s onwards.

Pick-me-up payments involved donors meeting bills owed by political parties to suppliers rather than making direct contributions. While the party was aware of who had paid the bill, the benefactor's name did not appear on any list of donors to party funds.

Mr Flemming was not directly involved in fundraising and was not involved in arranging pick-me-ups, and, he told the tribunal, this type of indirect benefit accounted for only about 5 per cent of party funds.

In a statement to the tribunal, businessman John Butler, a member of a consortium which retained Mr Dunlop in 1993 in relation to the rezoning of land at Cloghran near Dublin airport, said Mr Dunlop asked him to pay money owed by Fianna Fáil to the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi.

Mr Dunlop has denied making the request, but has told the tribunal that he could not discount the possibility that he had on occasion asked a client to make a donation to Fianna Fáil.

Mr Flemming said he knew Mr Butler because his company, Scafform, was working on the Fianna Fáil ardfheis building and he had dealt with him several times as a supplier of services.

Mr Butler may have "gone easy" in relation to the party's bill, but Mr Flemming said he was not aware of him as a donor and had no knowledge of his being asked by Mr Dunlop to make a donation.

When asked by counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon if Mr Dunlop was ever on any fundraising committee for Fianna Fáil, Mr Flemming said: "He might have been involved in a particular event, maybe a golf event or something, but he was never to my knowledge involved centrally in the fundraising committee."

Mr Butler will not be appearing before the tribunal today as scheduled. He was due to return from South America to give evidence but the tribunal has been told he is too ill to travel.