Dunlop's company had £536,000 in the bank

Frank Dunlop & Associates, the company run by the lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop who has been giving evidence to the Flood tribunal, had £536,224 (€680,864) lodged in the bank in October 1998, according to the latest returns filed in the Companies Registration Office.

The returns, for the financial year to October 31st, 1998, show that the amount in the bank increased to £536,244 on that date from £92,422 on the same date a year earlier. The accounts were filed in July 1999.

Mr Dunlop has been giving evidence to the Flood tribunal about cash payments he made to local and national politicians as part of its inquiry into corruption in the planning system. He is due to return to give more evidence in the coming weeks.

The latest filed balance sheet for his company, on October 31st, 1998, shows retained profits at year's end of £205,616, which is the balance after tax and dividends and includes £91,171 brought forward from the previous year.

Total creditors on October 31st, 1998 were £529,326, an increase from £265,037 on the same date on the previous year. The notes to the accounts show the creditors include a director's loan of £223,223. The director's loan on the previous year was just £32,998.

The directors of the company according to the accounts are Mr Dunlop (52), of Dunboyne, Co Meath, and Mr Phillip Connolly (35), of Dalkey, Co Dublin. Mr Dunlop owns 99 of the 100 issued shares, while Mr Connolly owns one. The accounts for earlier years show the cash at bank on October 31st as: £92,422 in 1997; £111,876 in 1996; £60,141 in 1995; zero in 1994, 1993 and 1992; £8,188 in 1991; and £96,833 in 1990. The company was incorporated in 1989.

The accounts indicate that the company's profits varied greatly over the years, with losses being recorded in the early 1990s, the years when, according to Mr Dunlop's evidence to the Flood tribunal, he worked closely with a number of councillors on Dublin County Council organising rezonings and planning permissions for a number of major developers.

The profit and loss account figures recorded on the balance sheet are: £3,113 in 1996; £37,525 in 1995; (£11,737) in 1994; (£34,578) in 1993; (£76,295) in 1992; £8,328 in 1991; and £7,909 in 1990.

For a number of years in the early 1990s the company had an overdraft facility of £30,000, secured by a letter of guarantee dated August 1991 from Mr Dunlop.

The director's loan varied greatly over the years: £57,022 in 1996; £6,951 in 1995; zero in 1994; £1,426 in 1993; zero in 1992; £4,113 in 1991; and zero in 1990.

The company's name changed from Dunlop and Associates to Frank Dunlop and Associates in the mid-1990s. Mr Dunlop was a director of the public relations firm, Murray Consultants, up to 1995. From 1996 he was a director of Pennine Holdings Ltd, a company with an address at 61 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, with an issued share capital of £2. The latest returns, for the year ended April 1996, state that the company had no income that year.