Wright denies being paid by lobbyist

Fianna Fáil TD GV Wright has strongly denied receiving a £1,000 payment from the lobbyist Frank Dunlop for supporting a land rezoning application in north Dublin in 1993.

However, giving evidence to the Mahon tribunal yesterday, Mr Wright accepted that he had received £10,000 in political donations from Mr Dunlop between 1991 and 1993. These included £2,000 handed to the politician in the Dáil bar in 1991.

Mr Wright said the £10,000 constituted donations to local, Dáil and Seanad election campaigns. He emphatically rejected that they were linked to land transactions involving Mr Dunlop.

Mr Wright also disputed suggestions made by Judge Gerald Keys that councillors may have been irresponsible in ignoring advice from the Department of Transport about rezoning land at Cloghran, which was located in the red safety zone surrounding parts of Dublin airport.

Mr Wright said that he had given his "absolute support" to the plan to rezone the Cloghran land for a hotel development from the time he was informed about it by businessman John Butler, a member of a consortium which owned the property.

He said the development involved bringing jobs and investment to his constituency. "I find it hard to take that I would need some form of payment to support it. Absolutely not."

Mr Wright said that there was a need in the area for a hotel development at the time. He said that since 1993 there had been about eight additional hotels developed in the locality and that he had supported all of the projects.

He accepted that the development had been opposed by Aer Rianta. The airport operator said that the planned development would be in a red safety zone under the flight path leading to a runway for light aircraft.

He maintained Aer Rianta had changed the red zones in the period leading up to a confirmation vote for the rezoning.

He also argued that Aer Rianta opposed private sector involvement near the airport and even objected to farming developments. However, he said that the biggest building in the locality was the "massive" Team Aer Lingus facility.

He said that around the same time Aer Rianta was planning to develop the Great Southern Hotel at the airport, which he said was nearly in line with the Cloghran land.

Judge Keys suggested that councillors had ignored an objection by the Minister for Transport that the proposed rezoning would constitute an intrusion into the red safety zone. Mr Wright said development was going on all around.

Judge Keys said: "That's irrelevant. Here you had cast-iron evidence before the council saying, listen, you don't rezone this area because it is going to infringe on the safety of aircraft. From what I gather, that was totally ignored. Well, would you regard it as responsible decision-making?"

Mr Wright replied: "We knew for a fact that other developments were taking place beside this."

Judge Keys said: "Doesn't that just exacerbate the situation? Doesn't it just increase the danger for planes who are using the airport? If that is the case, you're adding to the problem by zoning other lands".

Mr Wright replied: "Unfortunately it was seen at the time what Aer Rianta was allowing to develop on one side . . . when the private sector wanted to do something it was seen in a different way."