Tribunal told landowners were 'willing participants' in bribery

Landowners Mr Denis Mahony and Mr Noel Fox were "willing participants in a criminal enterprise" to bribe politicians in return for a rezoning of their properties, Mr Frank Dunlop has claimed.

The former government press secretary has already told the tribunal that Mr Mahony and Mr Fox told him "they knew the way the world worked" when they engaged him to lobby for the rezoning of their lands at Drumnigh in north Dublin.

Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for Mr Mahony, accused Mr Dunlop of "traducing the good name and reputation of a highly respected businessman with an allegation made on the slenderest basis".

"No," Mr Dunlop responded.

Mr Hogan said his client would have been "appalled and aghast and angry" if he had known that Mr Dunlop had paid money to councillors in relation to the Drumnigh rezoning. He would never have agreed to it.

It was "extraordinarily improbable" that Mr Dunlop's version of events was correct. Why would his client participate in a criminal enterprise in the presence of a third party [Mr Fox], albeit a friend? The making of payments to politicians would be "anathema" to Mr Mahony, and "utterly beyond his radar screen".

Mr Hogan said the reference by the witness to "the way the world worked" could mean a lot of things. The sentence had no sinister connotation. It just meant that Mr Dunlop had a big task to do.

In the "debauched universe" in which Mr Dunlop operated, words acquired sinister connotations that they didn't have for other people.

Mr Dunlop agreed with Judge Mahon that Mr Mahony could have "a much more innocent meaning" from the phrase than he had done.

Asked why he hadn't told Mr Mahony about the payments he had made to politicians, Mr Dunlop said it wasn't "his practice" to do this. He had never told any landowner the details of any corrupt payment he had made.

"The fewer people you discussed it with the better."

Mr Hogan asked why he had paid money to Mr G.V. Wright for the rezoning when Mr Wright was a friend of Mr Mahony's for years.

Mr Dunlop said Mr Wright had asked for £2,000 and he had paid it. Mr Wright was "an important cog" in Dublin County Council "on an ongoing basis".

If the politician had asked for £8,000, Mr Dunlop said he would probably have paid it.

Counsel suggested the payment was "extraordinarily dangerous" because Mr Wright could have told Mr Mahony about it.

Mr Dunlop said this wouldn't have happened "in a million years".

Asked why he had handed Mr Wright the money folded inside a newspaper, he said he knew he couldn't just walk into the Dáil bar, put £2,000 in cash on the counter and slide it over, saying: "G.V., that's yours."

Mr Hogan said the witness had perjured himself on many occasions before the tribunal. There were significant internal contradictions in his statements, in contrast to those of Mr Mahony.