Wright given #2,000 wrapped in newspaper

Mr Frank Dunlop gave the Fianna Fáil TD Mr G.V. Wright a £2,000 election donation in an envelope wrapped in a newspaper in the Dáil bar, Mr Wright has told the tribunal.

Mr Wright said he hadn't expected the payment, which was made during the local election campaign in May/June 1991.

Mr Dunlop has alleged a payment of the same amount was made in the same venue in March or April 1993, and was given in return for Mr Wright's vote on the rezoning of lands at Drumnigh in north Dublin.

However, Mr Wright yesterday insisted the Dáil bar payment was an election donation. He said Mr Dunlop placed the newspaper beside him and said "I've left something in the newspaper to help with your election expenses."

Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, said she had a difficulty with election contributions being handed over in this "cloak and dagger" fashion. It was a secret and clandestine way of operating.

The witness said this was the way Mr Dunlop operated. No one else had ever given him money in so surreptitious a manner. Mr Dunlop's £3,000 cash payment in 1993 was made in a white envelope, Mr Wright said. He hadn't expected this payment either.

Mr Wright denied Mr Dunlop's allegation linking the £2,000 payment to his vote on the rezoning of the Drumnigh lands.

Nothing like this had been suggested in his 20 years in public life, he said. It hurt him even more that the allegation had affected a family friend of 30 years, Mr Denis Mahony, the owner of the Drumnigh lands.