Lawlor `may have dealt' with Kennedy

The former Fianna Fail TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, has conceded for the first time that he may have had business dealings with the controversial businessman, Mr Jim Kennedy.

Up to now Mr Lawlor has always denied doing business with Mr Kennedy, who is under investigation by the Flood tribunal for his links to the former assistant Dublin city and county manager, Mr George Redmond.

However, Mr Lawlor acknowledged to The Irish Times yesterday that Mr Kennedy may have an interest in a company in which the West Dublin TD is also claiming a share. Mr Lawlor has declared a 50 per cent shareholding in Clearview Ltd, in the latest register of TDs' interests for the 12 months to last January.

The shareholding, which Mr Lawlor said was "to be allocated", did not appear in the register previously, although the TD said yesterday his claim dated back to 1997. The company is the "owner of underground infrastructure".

Mr Lawlor said he didn't have any details regarding Clearview Ltd other than his claim to part ownership. He had no shares in it.

He said his claim to a 50 per cent share was based on an agreement with a Scottish property and mining millionaire, Mr Harry Dobson, on drainage piping in Lucan, Co Dublin. The pipes are believed to be worth millions of pounds and drain land owned by Mr Lawlor and an adjoining holding.

He didn't have details of the other shareholders, though he believed Mr Kennedy "may have an involvement". Mr Lawlor said he had no business dealings with Mr Kennedy, other than that Mr Kennedy acted as estate agent for a supermarket that was built near his home in Lucan.

Last November RTE reported that the pipeline in Lucan was the subject of a dispute involving Mr Lawlor, Mr Dobson and a solicitor, Mr John Caldwell, who also claimed part ownership. The matter was not resolved.

The tribunal has been investigating the transaction since RTE passed on documentation it had on the dispute. The Companies Registration Office holds files on a Clearview Ltd, but this company, set up for a hotel scheme in Cork in the early 1990s, has nothing to do with Mr Lawlor or the pipes, one of its directors said.

In his entry on the register Mr Lawlor gives a holding address for Clearview Ltd on Pembroke Road in Dublin. This is the former office of Gunne's Estate Agents, whose former principal, the late Mr Fintan Gunne, acted for Mr Dobson. Yesterday Mr Lawlor said the dispute with Mr Dobson first arose four years ago and he was "pushing his solicitor to advance it".

Mr Dobson (54) made a fortune in mining in Canada, but in recent years has invested heavily in property and bloodstock in Ireland. The owner of homes in London, Vancouver and Edinburgh, he is said to be worth more than $1 billion.

"Property deals are like buses in Piccadilly, there's one coming every five minutes," he is once reported as saying.

Mr Redmond has told the tribunal he lent over £100,000 to Mr Kennedy and another businessman, but he denied investing in Mr Kennedy's gaming arcade in Westmoreland Street in Dublin, or buying land with Mr Kennedy in Lucan.

The Flood tribunal's hearings into offshore payments to Mr Ray Burke resume today after a three-week break. The builder Mr Tom Brennan, one of whose companies built Mr Burke's house, is among those expected to give evidence.