Dunlop handed over £1,000 in busy pub, Flood hears

The Flood tribunal has this afternoon heard extensive details of allegations of corruption among Dublin city councillors by Mr Frank Dunlop.

In one instance, Mr Dunlop described handing over £1,000 in cash to a Fianna Fáil representative in a city centre pub that was regularly frequented by council members, "before, during and after" their meetings.

He said Fianna Fáil councillors even held meetings in an upstairs room of the pub because there were too many of them to fit in the offices allocated to them in the council's main building.

Mr Dunlop said the payment, to the late Mr Jack Larkin, was one of a number made to councillors in June 1992 in relation to their support for a motion to rezone 108 acres of land belonging to Paisley Park Investments, which was owned by Mr John Caldwell and Mr Jim Kennedy. Mr Liam Lawlor was also alleged to have an interest in the land.

This motion was subsequently defeated, but Mr Dunlop paid up nonetheless from money given to him by Mr Kennedy.

Yesterday, Mr Dunlop said he paid Senator Don Lydon and the late Mr Tom Hand £3,000 each in May 1992 to sign and second the motion respectively. He then embarked on a campaign of lobbying various councillors for their support.

The former political lobbyist said these included a number of representatives who had agreed to support him in a previous motion in 1991. They had all sought payment for their votes, he said, but were refused "at that time".

Mr Dunlop said he met Mr Larkin in Conway's pub shortly after the vote. "We sat on a seat and I put the money between us. He deftly picked it up" and put it in his pocket. The councillor "was not the type to carry a briefcase", he added. He agreed with Mr John Gallagher, SC for the tribunal, that this was "a bribe".

Mr Larkin's family claim to have no knowledge of any payments, and Mr Larkin denied knowledge of corruption in the planning process in his answers to a questionnaire circulated by the tribunal before his death in 1998.

Mr Dunlop also insisted today that he paid Mr Sean Gilbride £1,000 in cash for his support. He said Mr Gilbride had asked for money in 1991, and then again in relation to the 1992 motion. The payment was "an inducement" he said.

Mr Gilbride, in his statement, strenuously denied receiving the money, but admitted getting a £2,000 "political donation" prior to the local elections in 1991.

Mr Dunlop insisted this "was not a legitimate political payment". He said he would describe it using "the same word" as a word he had used yesterday in relation to similar matters. Yesterday, he called the payments to Mr Lydon and Mr Hand bribes.

Mr Dunlop also disagreed with Mr Gilbride's claim that he only voted in favour of rezoning Paisley Park's lands because he tended to side with Fianna Fáil colleagues from the area in question.