Mr Frank Dunlop received £300,000 from the developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan when the limit on the size of the Quarryvale shopping centre development was increased by South Dublin County Council.
Mr Dunlop told the tribunal he only played "a background advisory role" in the campaign to raise the cap on the development from 250,000 square feet to 500,000.
"I was not directly involved in any great lobbying in relation to the lifting of the cap. My client did a considerable amount of this himself . . . I was never involved in any payments to anybody in relation to the cap," he said.
Originally, Mr Tom Gilmartin had wanted a development with 1.5 million square feet of retail space in north Clondalkin. Mr Dunlop said Mr Gilmartin had made "a determined effort to put forward this notion".
"Both I and other people, including senior officials at the time in the county council, regarded that as particularly ridiculous because of its size."
Eventually, when Mr Gilmartin, Mr O'Callaghan and Allied Irish Banks came together "it was agreed almost by everybody concerned that 1,500,000 square feet was not a runner", Mr Dunlop told the tribunal.
Instead the development plan proposal and submission on Quarryvale proposed a development of 500,000 square feet.
Mr Dunlop said the second Dublin City Council vote on Quarryvale in December of 1992 was "particularly difficult".
"Certain members of the council believed that 500,000 square feet wouldn't run."
Consequently, on the night of the vote, a number of councillors came to his client and said that a development of 500,000 square feet "would not actually be supported" that night.
Mr Dunlop wrote the names of the councillors who approached him that night down on a piece of paper and handed it to counsel for the tribunal.
The public relations consultant said he had no expertise on whether the development would be viable at that size and had not been privy to any considerations of that matter. However, he took the attitude on the night that "half a loaf is better than no bread".
"I always regarded it as a possibility that the cap could be removed at some stage in the future."
The zoning motion was not confirmed on a statutory basis until December 1993. From then onwards, Mr Dunlop had many conversations with his client about trying to get the cap lifted.
He said lifting the cap "probably became easier" when the Dublin City Council was broken up and South Dublin County Council was constituted as a separate entity.
Mr Dunlop said the £300,000 payout he subsequently received could be described as "some sort of bonus".
