Dunlop received £1.2m from sale of land option

Mahon tribunal:Lobbyist Frank Dunlop has told the tribunal he received about £1.2 million from the sale of an option on land at the former racecourse at Baldoyle in north Dublin.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Dunlop said the option had been bought originally by two Dublin businessmen and that he had not contributed any money to the deal. However he said that the men, developer Brendan Hickey and stockbroker David Shubotham, had said that they did not want anything more to do with it after he had failed to secure rezoning for the site.

He said that if the rezoning had been successfully achieved in 1993, he would have discussed with Mr Hickey and Mr Shubotham about how the estimated £10 million profit would be divided. Mr Dunlop said he had not gone back to them about the subsequent sale of the option to developer Seán Mulryan.

He said either Mr Hickey or Mr Shubotham or both of them had said to him: "That's it, we don't want anything more to do with this, that's yours do what you like with it." Mr Dunlop added: "One or other or both of them made it palpably clear to me that they did not want to have anything further to do with this. That this was something of a corporate blot."

Mr Dunlop confirmed that former Fianna Fáil TD the late Liam Lawlor had done a great deal in terms of advising and assisting in relation to the rezoning project but he did not see him as a beneficial owner of the land.

Asked by tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon as to whether Mr Lawlor had sought money after the option on the land was sold, Mr Dunlop replied: "No."

"I would not say that he didn't raise the subject with me. He made a number of remarks which indicated to me that he knew that I had sold the option to Seán Mulryan but that he did not know how much I got," Mr Dunlop said.

The tribunal is investigating claims that Mr Dunlop paid money to members of the former Dublin County Council to secure their support for the rezoning plan.