Dunlop says he paid FF councillor to rezone land at Kinsealy

Lobbyist Frank Dunlop has made further allegations of corruption about the rezoning of land in north Dublin.

Mr Dunlop alleges he paid a former Fianna Fáil county councillor, Seán Gilbride £1,000, in 1993 in a failed attempt to rezone land at Kinsealy controlled by Walls Property. He claims a director of this company, Paul Walls, hired him in the full knowledge that money would have to be paid to councillors for their support.

Mr Walls denies the allegation while Mr Gilbride says that any payments he got from Mr Dunlop were political contributions.

The Walls module which began yesterday is the third investigation into the rezoning of land in north Dublin started by the Mahon tribunal in recent weeks. Unlike the others, however, this rezoning was not successful.

The tribunal is investigating attempts to rezone three parcels of land for housing: 54 acres at Kinsealy owned by Walls' subsidiary Glenellen Homes, 4.5 acres at Seatown, north of Malahide, owned by Paul Walls, and 12 acres of adjoining land owned by Walls Hydraulic. Mr Gilbride signed all three motions but withdrew them at a meeting in May 1993 after the county manager expressed opposition.

Planners described Seatown as the third most important area of scientific interest in north Co Dublin and an important home for migratory birds, while the Kinsealy land was in a rural area where the council was trying to restrict one-off housing.

Mr Dunlop admitted he did not include the Walls land on an initial list of corrupt rezonings provided to the tribunal in 2000 and later incorrectly stated that Mr Walls paid him £5,000. He now agrees with Mr Walls that his fee was £2,500 plus VAT. He was also to get a success fee of £6,000.

Land agent Tim Collins introduced him to Mr Walls, he told the tribunal yesterday, as a "last resort" to get the land rezoned. He had no doubt that both Mr Collins and Mr Walls knew he would have to pay money to councillors.

Earlier, giving evidence in a separate module, Mr Dunlop rejected a claim he had "doctored" his diary to support a corruption allegation against a businessman.

Martin Hayden SC, for businessman Robert White, said Mr Dunlop's diaries contained references to meetings with his client that hadn't happened. He pointed to the use of different styles of writing in different entries.

Mr Dunlop alleges Mr White paid him £5,000 in cash in 1990 to get councillors "on side" for a planned hotel and housing development near Swords. Mr White says he paid Mr Dunlop £2,500 for public relations work but denies knowledge of any payments by the lobbyist to councillors.

Mr Dunlop, whose diary records two meetings with Mr White in the Shelbourne Hotel in August 1990, said he could not understand why Mr White was denying these meetings had taken place. Was Mr Hayden suggesting he had met Mr White's ghost? "Or a fiction or your imagination for your own benefit?" Mr Hayden replied.

Mr Dunlop denied falsifying the diary. He described it as quite extraordinary that while he had kept diaries and given them to the tribunal, others had come to the tribunal and claimed they had no meetings with him, without producing their own diaries. Even serious business people had claimed they did not have a diary.