Lawlor supported Lucan rezoning by 'not voting for it'

Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor helped ensure the success of a controversial rezoning proposal by not publicly supporting it, the tribunal has heard.

Leading builder Mr Joe Tiernan said any support by Mr Lawlor for the rezoning of lands in Lucan in west Dublin would amount to a "kiss of death" for the project. Mr Lawlor left him in no doubt that it would be better if the politician was not enthusiastic about the proposed rezoning of the land at Coolamber in 1990 and did not support it.

This was in spite of the fact that Mr Lawlor lived on adjoining lands and would benefit financially if Dublin County Council rezoned the lands on which Mr Tiernan wanted to build almost 500 houses. If this happened, it was likely that Mr Lawlor's lands would then be next up for rezoning by dint of the "domino effect", he explained.

Mr Tiernan said the politician did not reveal his involvement in the ownership of the lands the builder was proposing to develop and which he was then in the process of buying from an Irish company, Southfield Property Company.

He contracted to buy the agriculturally zoned lands from Southfield in November 1989 and immediately set about lobbying county councillors to have them rezoned by a material contravention of the county development plan.

Mr Tiernan said he was "certainly optimistic and possibly confident" that he could persuade a majority of councillors to support the rezoning motion. A Fine Gael activist and one-time election candidate, he knew three-quarters of the councillors personally.

He believed his proposed development was sustainable and would not involve any expense for the council. He also knew that this council had passed many material contravention motions and was "pro-development".

However, one key fact was that Mr Lawlor lived beside the proposed development. "I was very conscious that some public representatives of all parties, including his own, would not be anxious to do anything to facilitate him on adjoining lands."

He agreed with Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, that as a Fine Gael member, people would consider that he was the developer least likely to be involved with Mr Lawlor. He met Mr Lawlor two or three times about his plans. Mr Lawlor indicated a lack of enthusiasm for voting for the rezoning; subsequently, it became obvious that he would not vote for it.

Mr Tiernan took from Mr Lawlor's reaction that it was in "the natural progression of things" that the politician's lands would be the next to be rezoned if his proposal succeeded. He eventually decided that Mr Lawlor was "more of a liability than an asset" and did not "show his hand" in relation to his efforts to lobby councillors.

Mr O'Neill pointed out that Mr Lawlor was "very much supporting" the proposed rezoning by not voting for it. If he had supported the project, this would have been the "kiss of death".

"Any enthusiasm by him would have been the kiss of death," Mr Tiernan agreed.

In June 1990, councillors voted by 27 votes to 20 to rezone the lands. Mr Lawlor did not attend. However, within a year, this decision and the resulting planning permission obtained by Mr Tiernan was overturned by An Bord Pleanála and in the High Court.

Two years later, the lands were rezoned when a new development plan was drafted and Mr Tiernan secured planning permission for more than 500 houses.