Wright 'failed to disclose donations'

Mahon Tribunal: Fianna Fáil TD Mr G.V. Wright failed to disclose to the tribunal £10,000 in donations he received from Mr Frank Dunlop until Mr Dunlop himself revealed them, the tribunal has been told.

For more than a year, the tribunal sought without success the details of payments made by Mr Dunlop to the TD, according to tribunal counsel Ms Patricia Dillon SC.

Yesterday Mr Wright accepted "with hindsight" he should have disclosed earlier the fact that he had received the donations, even if he didn't then have the detail of the amounts involved.

Beginning his evidence to the tribunal, he vigorously denied Mr Dunlop's allegation that two of the payments were corrupt.

Mr Wright said he had never asked for or received an improper payment from anyone. "I never sold my vote for any individual or any project in my 20 years of service."

The politician says he received cash donations from Mr Dunlop of £2,000 during the local elections in 1991, £5,000 before the general election in November 1992 and £3,000 during the 1993 Seanad elections.

He also received a £5,000 cheque from developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan at the same time as he received the donation from Mr Dunlop in 1992.

In March 1999, Mr Wright acknowledged to tribunal lawyers in a private interview that he had received financial support from Mr Dunlop. The transcript of this interview will not be disclosed until today.

At the end of this interview, the TD offered to provide the lawyers with further information. However, further letters from the tribunal that year failed to elicit this.

Mr Wright yesterday denied having "an absolute failure of recollection" about the visit of Mr Dunlop and Mr O'Callaghan to his office in 1992. He remembered their visit but he didn't have an "absolute position" regarding the amounts of their donations.

He didn't have the full facts and didn't want to send the tribunal inaccurate information.

He agreed the £10,000 from the two men in 1992 was the biggest amount he had ever received and was "a singular event" in his life. He wasn't sure why he hadn't made a full disclosure.

Ms Dillon suggested that maybe Mr Wright didn't want to disclose the payments, but Mr Wright said this wasn't true.

In January 2000, he acknowledged Mr O'Callaghan as a donor and in February he supplied the lawyers with the amount. But he still didn't refer to any donation from Mr Dunlop.

In April 2000, the payments were publicly disclosed when Mr Dunlop gave evidence to the tribunal. Mr Wright's evidence continues today.