Former Monarch executive Richard Lynn told the tribunal the late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand "pulled the wool over my eyes very nicely" by claiming to be acting as an election agent for other party candidates when seeking a donation in 1991.
Mr Hand, who got a £5,000 donation from Monarch, represented himself as an organiser for Fine Gael in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown, according to Mr Lynn. He was given to understand that Mr Hand would be dispersing the money to other party candidates in the area.
He denied the donations made by Monarch were for the benefit of the Cherrywood project. They were made to support local democracy. "I wouldn't marry a political donation to a particular benefit," he told Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal.
There was no connection between political payments and any planning benefit. "You'd have to be a fool to believe that one gave rise to the other." None of the political donations was made in cash.
Mr Lynn said the reason the donations were attributed as a cost to the Cherrywood project was because this was the only major project Monarch had going on at the time.
Mr Lynn said he had no involvement in posting these expenses to the Cherrywood account; this was an accounting matter. However, he did seek reimbursement of these costs from Monarch's business partners, GRE.
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