Inquiry told of claim FG councillor got £23,000

Former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop will give evidence that the late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand asked for £250,000 (€317,000) and was paid £23,000 for his support of the Quarryvale project, the tribunal heard yesterday.

Tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon SC, told the Mahon tribunal that Mr Dunlop will make three allegations against Mr Hand; one involving a demand for £250,000, a second involving a payment of £20,000 and a third involving a series of smaller payments totalling £3,000.

The tribunal resumed yesterday after a 12-day break, taken in part because Mr Dunlop was too ill to attend. The tribunal heard Mr Dunlop would say Mr Hand requested the £250,000 in 1992 for his support of the Quarryvale project, initially at a meeting with Mr Dunlop and then at a meeting with both Mr Dunlop and property developer Owen O'Callaghan.

Ms Dillon said Mr O'Callaghan would corroborate that a meeting had taken place and he had been asked for £250,000. Both men would say that the money was not paid, she said.

Mr Hand is alleged to have given Mr Dunlop details of a bank account in Australia into which the money could be paid, the tribunal heard. A document, found among Mr Dunlop's papers following discovery, was shown to the tribunal. It gave the name and address of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, with an account number written on it.

Following contacts with the bank, Ms Dillon said, the tribunal was informed that Mr Hand did hold at least two accounts there during 1991 and 1992 and the account number matched the one found in Mr Dunlop's papers. Mr Dunlop will say that the payment of £20,000 was made in return for Mr Hand's signature on a motion related to the Quarryvale development, in June 1991, Ms Dillon said.

It was paid in two instalments; the first at Mr Hand's home before he signed the motion, and the second after the motion was carried, in Conway's pub, in Parnell Street. The tribunal heard Mr Dunlop will say Mr Hand also received a number of small sums, between £500 and £1,000.

Bank transactions in Mr Hand's accounts were followed up by the tribunal, Ms Dillon said, and two sums lodged, one of £35,000 in early November 1992, and one of £10,000 in early 1993 could not be explained.

"The tribunal has not been able to reconcile these lodgments with withdrawals or transactions connected with any accounts . . . obtained by the tribunal from the banks within this jurisdiction," she said.

Cormac Ó Dúlacháin SC, for the family of Mr Hand, said not one single alleged payment could be reconciled with any lodgment to any of Mr Hand's accounts. He acknowledged that some of Mr Hand's transactions were not traceable but said it was impossible to "draw any negative inference from the fact that there is no explanation because the documents that would provide the explanation do not appear to exist".

The tribunal was told that Mr Dunlop would say the late Patrick Dunne was paid £15,000 in his position as whip of the Fianna Fáil group on Dublin county council to ensure his support of the Quarryvale project. However, the exact figure did not appear in his bank accounts, the tribunal heard. It was also alleged that the late Fianna Fáil councillor Jack Larkin was paid £1,000 in Conway's Pub in return for his support for Quarryvale.