Evidence of money paid from Dunlop amended

THE FLOOD TRIBUNAL: Former Fine Gael senator Mr Liam Cosgrave has dramatically changed his account of the payments he received from Mr Frank Dunlop.

Mr Cosgrave has revised the evidence he gave to the Fine Gael inquiry in May 2000 and to the tribunal previously by more than doubling the amounts he acknowledges receiving from Mr Dunlop.

The admission was made in two statements furnished to the tribunal on Tuesday - 2½ years after he first came under investigation - in which he acknowledged receiving almost £8,000 in payments.

However, he insisted that all the payments he got were "legitimate political donations" aside from one payment of £1,815 he said was for legal services. This was an "improper payment" because no tax or VAT was paid on it.

In contrast, Mr Cosgrave told the Fine Gael inquiry he received just £3,000-3,500 from Mr Dunlop and said he could not recall the circumstances in which the payments were made.

Asked to explain the difference in the two accounts, Mr Cosgrave said he had under-estimated one payment and had forgotten about another. The amount of his underestimation was less than a tribunal lawyer earned "before lunch", he told Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal.

Mr Cosgrave said the Fine Gael inquiry was "either sloppy or sinister" and had withheld information about him that was in its possession. "I'm being treated differently here," he told Mr Gallagher. "I was down here on a number of days and Frank Dunlop was being minded like a baby. I need equal treatment."

In the first statement filed last Tuesday, he says he received four payments from Mr Dunlop for amounts varying between £500 and £2,500 (see panel). All were linked to various elections he was fighting during the 1990s.

No payment was given in return for any vote or was connected in any way to the rezoning at Carrickmines, he said.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Cosgrave was saying he received these payments for the first time since the tribunal had started writing to him in December 1999

In the second new statement, Mr Cosgrave said the £1,815 payment from Frank Dunlop and Associates to Egan Cosgrave solicitors was for legal work done on an option agreement. He subsequently withdrew the money without the knowledge of anyone else in the firm.

Asked why he hadn't declared this payment before last Tuesday, he said he had forgotten about it.