FG councillors 'warned' about backing rezoning

Former Fine Gael leaders John Bruton and Garret FitzGerald warned the party's councillors in Dublin to be careful about what rezonings they supported, and what they were seen to support, Mr Frank Dunlop has told the tribunal.

Mr Dunlop said he was told this by councillors who had attended meetings addressed by senior party figures in Conways pub in the early 1990s. As a result of the warnings, certain members of Fine Gael never again voted for developments.

Mr Dunlop yesterday repeated his claim that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil operated a whip system for rezoning votes on Dublin County Council.

Contacted by the tribunal, Fianna Fáil said it was "unable to establish" whether party headquarters had issued any instructions to councillors at this time. All party representatives were required to act in a bona-fide manner in the best interests of the body of which they were members.

However, Mr Dunlop dismissed this as "retrospective, high-minded rubbish" which "flew in the face of the facts". There was "definitively" a whip system in operation. People were told what the attitude of the party would be to a given development.

As for Fine Gael, he said, the system in operation was "more benign". Fine Gael councillors would take soundings and there would be a "deference" to the attitude of the local councillors to a particular rezoning.

However, some party councillors were not "factually aware" that some of their colleagues were very disposed to rezoning.

He recalled two Fine Gael councillors telling him they had been advised by a colleague "in a motherly way" to be careful about their contacts with him because the wrong inference could be drawn.

Earlier, Mr Dunlop said the solicitor Mr John Caldwell "put himself forward" to the media as the sole owner of the controversial English company, Jackson Way, in return for a financial benefit.

Mr Caldwell had done this after discussing the matter with the businessman and owner of Jackson Way, Mr Jim Kennedy, according to Mr Dunlop.

In 2000, Mr Dunlop introduced Mr Caldwell to the journalist Charlie Bird of RTÉ News, who had been inquiring into the ownership of Jackson Way.

When Mr Dunlop discussed the arrangement later with Mr Kennedy, the businessman told him it had "cost him dearly".

"I understood this to mean that John Caldwell had stepped into the ownership of Jackson Way for a significant fee," Mr Dunlop said. "The words used were not explained but I didn't come up the Liffey on a green bike."

Meanwhile, the former Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, has again denied he has anything to do with Jackson Way.

In a letter to the tribunal, which was read out yesterday, Mr Lawlor said he rejected Mr Dunlop's allegation that he had an interest in the Jackson Way lands at Carrickmines, Co Dublin, or that he had registered this interest in Liechtenstein.