Developers gave councillor #9,000

Mahon tribunal: Developers gave a former Democratic Left county councillor £9,000 for charity after South Dublin County Council gave them the go-ahead to build extra houses on rezoned land, the tribunal has heard.

Tallaght councillor Michael Billane voted in February 1996 to increase from 360 to 600 the number of houses Ballycullen Farms could build on their land. The change, a material contravention of the local plan requiring a 75 per cent majority of councillors, added £2.1 million to the value of their south Dublin land.

Ballycullen Farms, owned by brothers Christopher and Gerry Jones, gave Mr Billane payments of £3,000, £1,000 and £5,000 between 1996 and 1998 for Aosóg, a youth charity.

Yesterday, Mr Billane, a former colleague of Pat Rabbitte in Democratic Left who has since joined Fianna Fáil, said Aosóg was fundraising to refurbish its centre at Ballyknockan at the time. He had asked Frank Brooks, the farm manager with Ballycullen Farms, for support.

Mr Billane, together with Mr Rabbitte and another Democratic Left councillor, Don Tipping, voted for the original motion to rezone Ballycullen in October 1992. A year later, however, Mr Billane and Mr Tipping voted against a motion to confirm the rezoning.

Judge Mary Faherty said Mr Billane had voted against building 360 houses on the land in 1993 and then, more than two years later, he had voted in favour of 600 houses. She asked what had prompted his "quantum leap".

Mr Billane said the original proposal would see millionaire's houses built on the land, while the increase in density would provide more affordable housing and more employment for building workers.

He recalled a brief conversation with party colleagues in 1992 about a donation Mr Rabbitte had received from lobbyist Frank Dunlop. Mr Rabbitte had told them he got a £2,000 contribution and he was sending it back. Mr Rabbitte made the decision to return the money himself.

Mr Billane said he did not know Mr Dunlop and never saw him at council meetings, although he saw other lobbyists.

Asked why he had voted for the original rezoning motion in 1992, he said his decision was probably based on the merits of the debate. In 1993, when he reversed his vote, he followed the whip imposed by the party. "Democratic Left came out of the Workers' Party and we did what we were told. If we were told to vote against it, we voted against it." The witness, who did not provide the tribunal with a statement, said Mr Rabbitte never spoke to him about the Ballycullen land.