Dunlop 'told' councillors how to vote, Flood hears

Fianna Fáil senator Don Lydon told the Flood Tribunal of seeing the lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop standing outside the Dublin County Council chamber "telling" councillors how to vote.

Mr Lydon said that although he was not "intimately" acquainted with the former government press secretary, he knew him to see as he was always "tipping around" the council offices in the early 1990s.

Mr Lydon had the perception, as did other councillors, that Mr Dunlop was "involved in a lot of developments" and represented numerous different landowners and developers.

He told the tribunal he often saw Mr Dunlop with a clipboard, confronting members as they entered the chamber to vote on motions. He was "telling rather than asking" people how to vote, Mr Lydon said. Although he was aware that Mr Dunlop was soliciting support, he "didn't think there was any harm in what he was doing".

In response to a question from tribunal lawyer Mr John Gallagher SC, Mr Lydon said he could not remember if he had personally been approached in such a manner but insisted it would make "no difference on God's earth who asked me to do what".

Mr Dunlop alleges he paid Mr Lydon £3,000 in 1992 in return for his support for a motion to rezone the Paisley Park lands at Carrickmines, a charge Mr Lydon denies.

The tribunal also heard there was no whip system among Fianna Fáil councillors. Mr Lydon said party members would meet before Dublin County Council meetings in Conway's Pub on Parnell Street prior to planning votes. They would "adopt a position" on matters, but this was a consensus of opinion rather than a strict whip, he said.

"A whip is where you have to vote," he argued when asked if this was not the same thing by Mr Gallagher. "You could vote how you liked, the record shows that." A trawl of the records of voting patterns in the council over the years in question would show that on numerous occasions, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors would vote against their party colleagues, he said.

The Labour Party was the only party with a whip system, Mr Lydon said, but he wouldn't vote with them "if I was dying".