Two councillors failed to disclose #1,000 donations

Another two councillors have admitted that they failed to disclose contributions to their party inquiries into payments to politicians.

Fine Gael's Mr Michael Joe Cosgrave and Mr Liam Creaven of Fianna Fáil both failed to tell their respective party inquiries in 2000 about a £1,000 donation they each received from developer Mr Seán Mulryan of Ballymore Homes.

The two men, who represent Howth, described as coincidence similarities in their respective statements to the tribunal and the fact they both forgot to mention the payments from Mr Mulryan.

But they denied a claim by tribunal counsel Ms Patricia Dillon SC that they were "puppets" of the lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop, whose projects they consistently supported.

Former TD Mr Cosgrave said Mr Mulryan's donation "slipped" his memory until he met Mr Mulryan at the races last year and was reminded of it.

Asked if he had clarified the matter with Fine Gael since, he said he hadn't because Mr Mulryan's payment was made in late 1993, after the Dublin development plan had been finalised.

Mr Cosgrave acknowledged he had been "very friendly" with Mr Dunlop and that it was his practice to support the developments Mr Dunlop lobbied for "if I felt they merited my support".

Ms Dillon asked the witness to name any of Mr Dunlop's projects that he had voted against, aside from his abstention on the vote relating to Baldoyle racecourse.

Mr Cosgrave said he didn't vote on one proposal in Bray, but he was unable to name any development he had opposed.

He told the Fine Gael inquiry three years ago he got £1,000 from Mr Dunlop and £500 from Monarch Properties and "categorically denied" receiving any other payments from developers.

Asked how he forgot about the donation from Mr Mulryan, he said: "I lost it in my memory."

Ms Dillon said the two politicians had submitted answers to the tribunal in almost identical formats. Mr Cosgrave said this was a coincidence. He had prepared his own statement.

Was it another coincidence, Ms Dillon asked, that Mr Creaven had had a "similar failure of memory" in relation to the payment he received from Mr Mulryan?

Mr Cosgrave said he could only answer for himself.

Ms Dillon said that rather than exercising any independent judgment, when Mr Dunlop "turfed up" it was a case of "yes Frank, no Frank, three bags full Frank" on the part of the two politicians.

Mr Cosgrave denied this was the case.

Mr Creaven accepted that he and Mr Cosgrave were "a double act" who held the same views and consistently voted the same way.

He told the Fianna Fáil inquiry he hadn't received any donations from Mr Dunlop "or anybody else". His political campaigns were funded by his family.

Asked yesterday why he hadn't declared the payment from Mr Mulryan, he said he felt the inquiry was looking at the draft development plan for Dublin and he didn't believe this payment had anything to do with this.

When Ms Dillon said he was Mr Dunlop's "puppet," Mr Creaven said he "didn't like that expression". "I was no one's puppet, now or then."