Payments to councillors not linked to shopping centre vote, says developer

CORK DEVELOPER Owen O'Callaghan has said it was "pure coincidence" that he paid two councillors a total of £25,000 on the same day, shortly after the zoning for the Quarryvale development was ratified.

Mr O'Callaghan said the payments were two separate issues and were not connected to a Dublin County Council vote in October 1993, which ratified previous decisions to allow retail development at Quarryvale.

The planning tribunal is currently questioning Mr O'Callaghan as part of the Quarryvale II module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre is built.

Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, said councillors voted to accept a motion to allow retail development at Quarryvale with a cap of 250,000sq ft on October 19th, 1993. The vote ratified previous decisions made by the council.

Ms Dillon said Mr O'Callaghan wrote a cheque for £5,000 for former Labour councillor John O'Halloran the following month, on November 9th. On the same day, he wrote a cheque for £20,000 for former Fianna Fáil councillor Colm McGrath.

Mr O'Callaghan said the two cheques were separate issues. The political donation to Mr O'Halloran was given because that councillor had voted against his party to support Quarryvale and had subsequently been ejected from his party. Mr McGrath had repeatedly asked for money because he was in trouble with the Revenue Commissioners, Mr O'Callaghan said.

"I thought about it for a while and eventually decided I would help him out . . . on the basis of a loan, which of course was never repaid," he said.

Ms Dillon said both payments were initially analysed in Mr O'Callaghan's books as expenses relating to the Quarryvale development. Mr McGrath's payment was not recorded as a loan and Mr O'Halloran's payment was not recorded as a political donation, she said.

"Is it a question that you were effectively paying off the councillors who had supported you now that the matter was successfully concluded?" she asked.

"No . . . they were totally separate issues, just pure coincidence it happened on the one day," Mr O'Callaghan said.

Ms Dillon said a payment of £25,000 to Mr O'Callaghan's lobbyist Frank Dunlop in September 1993 was treated in the company books in the same way as the two payments to the councillors.

Mr Dunlop cashed the entire personal cheque on September 17th, the tribunal heard. Ms Dillon said on the same day, Mr Dunlop's diary recorded an appointment at Power's Hotel, a hotel frequented by politicians.