A Dublin restaurateur who paid an advertising bill on behalf of Fianna Fáil in 1993 has told the Mahon tribunal that he did not know the payment had any connection with land rezoning or the lobbyist Frank Dunlop. Olivia Kelly reports.
Tom Williams was part of a consortium, along with businessmen John Butler and Niall Kenny, which bought 18 acres of land at Cloghran beside Dublin airport for £215,000 in 1989.
The lands were zoned as agricultural at the time but were later rezoned by Dublin County Council to industrial use following lobbying by Mr Dunlop on behalf of the consortium. The consortium sold the lands in 1996 for £1.6 million. The tribunal is investigating the rezoning of the lands in 1993.
Mr Williams told the tribunal that he was asked by Mr Butler in December 1993 to pay money owed by Fianna Fáil to the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi.
"Mr Butler approached me and asked me would we pay for some printing or make a donation to Fianna Fáil by way of paying for printing," he said.
The payment was known as a "pick-me-up", a form of political donation that involved donors meeting bills owed by parties rather than making direct contributions. While the party was aware of who had paid the bill, the benefactor's name did not appear on any list of donors.
Mr Williams said he probably did not know the term "pick-me- up" at the time and was not aware that this payment bore any relation to the rezoning at Cloghran.
"I knew it was money for Fianna Fáil . . . I wasn't aware there was any relationship between the Saatchi and Saatchi payment and the airport lands."
In his statement to the tribunal Mr Butler said Mr Dunlop asked that the money be paid to Saatchi and Saatchi in lieu of his consultancy fee. Mr Dunlop denies this.
Mr Williams said he did not know that the payment had anything to do with Mr Dunlop and that Mr Butler had not told him Mr Dunlop had instructed that the payment be made. He wrote a cheque to Saatchi and Saatchi for £5,929 and understood that Mr Butler would be writing a cheque for a similar amount. Mr Butler did write a cheque to the company, but for £4,000.
Mr Williams denied he believed that rezoning of the Cloghran land was guaranteed by Mr Dunlop's involvement. He had previously told the tribunal that Mr Butler said he had found "a guy that could get it rezoned", referring to Mr Dunlop.
He understood this to mean that Mr Dunlop would assist with the application but he said he knew it was not a fait accompli that rezoning would be secured.
"I didn't think that Mr Dunlop had rezoning in his pockets that he could just hand out. I knew there was a process that had to be gone through. What the process was, I wasn't familiar with."