A county councillor, now deceased, gave Mr George Redmond a tip-off that the i Garda was investigating certain planning matters in the Dublin County Council area, the former assistant city and county council manager told the tribunal yesterday.
This was what led to him severing the "umbilical cord" with people who had given him money, he said.
Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, said the information that he was being named in connection with a Garda inquiry came not through an official source but through an official.
Mr Redmond said: "I didn't say it was an official. Without naming names, he was a member of the local county council."
Mr O'Neill asked if he meant an elected representative. Mr Redmond said it was public knowledge that some investigation was being made. Mr O'Neill then asked him to write down the name. When he had done so, counsel said he understood that the person was now deceased.
He said he received "in the region of £15,000 upwards" from the builder Mr Tom Brennan in 1988 and received his last cash payment from him around February 1989. All payments were paid at Mr Brennan's house or on his lands.
Asked by Mr O'Neill why payments did not continue after that, Mr Redmond said there were Garda inquiries at that stage and his name "had come up".
When he heard about the inquiry, he said: "It changed me anyway . . . it hit me hard" and had the effect of freezing his activities. Asked if he discussed with Mr Brennan what he would say when gardai started asking questions, he said he made no such arrangements. "I simply cut the umbilical cord and that was it," he said, adding that he was extremely apprehensive.
Asked why he was worried, he said: "Any sort of involvement with the police is a worry, Mr O'Neill. Is that not enough?"
He said he was "naturally scared" because he had accepted payments. He knew the payments were for advice but he worried others would not see them in the same way.
He continued to Mr O'Neill: "You are really squeezing me dry on this", a comment which drew laughs from the public gallery.