Wright claims donation had nothing to do with rezoning

Fianna Fáil TD Mr G.V. Wright accepts he received a £2,000 donation from Mr Frank Dunlop in the Dáil bar, his lawyers have told the tribunal.

However, Mr Martin Kennedy, for Mr Wright, said the payment was made in 1991 and not 1993, as Mr Dunlop was claiming, and had nothing to do with the rezoning of land at Drumnigh.

Mr Kennedy said Mr Dunlop had originally placed this payment in 1991, but had since changed his story. This variation in evidence called into question his credibility. Mr Wright will tell the tribunal he got three payments, totalling £10,000, from Mr Dunlop, his counsel told the tribunal. He also got a separate, unrelated payment (of £5,000 from the developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan) on the same day as the £5,000 he got from Mr Dunlop, in November 1992. Mr Dunlop also gave him an unsolicited payment of £3,000 in 1993.

Mr Kennedy said his client might have been indiscreet in asking Mr Dunlop to meet him in advance of the latter's evidence to the tribunal in 2000. Mr Wright simply wanted to be clear by asking Mr Dunlop to confirm the amounts he had given.Counsel said that on the day before the Drumnigh vote, Mr Wright had voted against a rezoning proposal in Baldoyle in which Mr Dunlop had a stake.