Businessman Jim Kennedy and his company Jackson Way Properties (JWP) have lost a High Court challenge to a refusal to provide information about land in Carrickmines, south Dublin, which has been the subject of years of litigation.

GOOD lawyers don’t look for popularity in the cases they take but even Kevin Feeney must have wondered how he got landed with one particular brief which looked like it could only put him in a lose-lose situation.

Charges of corruption against four councillors and a businessman have been withdrawn by the State due to the medical condition of the chief prosecution witness.

The trial of five men accused of giving or receiving corrupt payments in relation to the rezoning of land in South County Dublin is due to open before a jury today.

The Mahon Tribunal has withheld publication of one section of its groundbreaking report on planning corruption as several councillors and a businessman are facing an upcoming criminal trial on related matters.

A BRITISH company under investigation by the Planning Tribunal has been awarded just under €13 million for having its land compulsorily acquired for the final leg of the M50 motorway in south Dublin.

FORMER Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor will find out next month if he will face a six-figure legal bill as a result of this week’s ruling by the Planning Tribunal that he had repeatedly lied in recent evidence to the inquiry.

A BRITISH company at the centre of allegations of planning corruption in Dublin has cleared the final obstacle for receipt of a potential €47m payout from Irish taxpayers.

A HIGH-PROFILE Fianna Fáil probe into donations to members failed to uncover thousands of pounds in payments from developers because the investigating committee did not honour their terms of reference, the Flood Tribunal heard.

THE Fianna Fáil senator and psychologist Don Lydon told the Flood Tribunal that Frank Dunlop displayed characteristics similar to people he saw as patients.

A FIANNA FÁIL senator under investigation by the Flood Tribunal said he would take money from anybody, with the possible exception of gangsters, in order to get elected.

FORMER Fine Gael TD Liam Cosgrave has denied conspiring with Frank Dunlop to mislead the Flood Tribunal by claiming any bribes he received from the political lobbyist were legitimate political donations.

FORMER Fine Gael TD Liam Cosgrave failed to declare what he described as a “legitimate” political donation of £2,500 (€3,174) from Frank Dunlop to the Public Offices Commission as required by legislation.

A FORMER councillor who was allegedly paid bribes to support the controversial rezoning of lands in south Dublin never actually voted on the issue, the Flood Tribunal heard yesterday.

FRANK DUNLOP has admitted he can offer no explanation why the first time he recorded an alleged bribe in his diaries was just five days before the establishment of the Flood Tribunal.

THE political lobbyist Frank Dunlop has told the Flood Tribunal that he believed Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fox paid party colleagues to support rezoning motions.

FRANK DUNLOP made a £10,000 deal for his help with a land rezoning but made the landowners do all the work.

THE Flood Tribunal is expected to decide this week on what legal action, if any, it intends to take against the tax exile businessman, Jim Kennedy over his refusal to appear at the inquiry as a witness.

POLITICAL lobbyist Frank Dunlop felt obliged to pay £15,000 to councillors who had voted in favour of rezoning his client’s property in 1992, despite the fact the rezoning motion was defeated.

THE wife of elusive businessman Jim Kennedy has launched a blistering attack on the media over its reporting of her husband’s business affairs.

THE Flood Tribunal will decide next week if it will take further legal action against the businessman, Jim Kennedy, over his failure to appear as a witness at the inquiry yesterday.

A CONTROVERSIAL tax exile under investigation by the Flood Tribunal is expected to snub the inquiry by failing to turn up to give evidence at Dublin Castle today.

THE Flood Tribunal has not ruled out the possibility that it could examine the motivation of planning officials as part of its investigation into alleged corruption among councillors.

AN offshore company under investigation by the Flood Tribunal accused Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council in 1998 of misleading its own councillors about a rezoning motion on lands it owned.

FORMER Fine Gael TD Liam Cosgrave has launched a blistering, verbal attack on Frank Dunlop over Mr Dunlop’s allegations that Mr Cosgrave was paid £7,000 for his support on controversial land rezoning

Disgraced TD Liam Lawlor and reclusive businessman Jim Kennedy were at the centre of two property companies that allegedly paid £30,000 in bribes to councillors, the Flood Tribunal was told yesterday.

BUSINESSMAN James Kennedy, who is named as one of the owners of the Jackson Way property company, has told the Flood Tribunal he will not meet with its investigators or attend hearings.

FRANK Dunlop has told the Flood Tribunal he paid a total of £30,000 to nine past and present councillors in Dublin in return for their votes on controversial rezoning motions relating to lands in south Dublin during the 1990s.

FORMER Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor was central to attempts to rezone lands through the use of bribes and undue influence, according to statements Frank Dunlop has given to the Flood Tribunal.

EVIDENCE heard at the Flood Tribunal yesterday suggests that former Fine Gael TD Liam Cosgrave may have received up to £19,000 in seven separate payments from Frank Dunlop.

DISGRACED former TD Liam Lawlor and reclusive businessman Jim Kennedy were at the centre of two property companies that allegedly paid £30,000 in bribes to councillors, the Flood Tribunal was told yesterday.

The Flood Tribunal has been told that the final route of the M50 in South Dublin was moved several times to benefit the owners of the Jackson Way lands at Carrickmines.

The Flood Tribunal will continue to hear the opening statement of the next phase in it’s investigation today.

THE Flood Tribunal probe into bribery and corruption in politics and planning has already achieved much

MORE than 20 land rezoning decisions and 10 other matters of public concern are being probed by the Flood Tribunal which resumed hearings yesterday, with tens of thousands of fresh documents to examine.

FURTHER details about payments of up to £5,000 made by Frank Dunlop to councillors in return for alleged planning favours on lands at Carrickmines are expected to emerge at the Flood Tribunal today.

The Flood tribunal has been told that payments to former TD Liam Cosgrave Junior from Frank Dunlop were for election purposes only and not for re-zoning motions.

The next phase of the planning and payments tribunal formally resumes at Dublin castle later this morning.

THE arbitrator in the Jackson Way land compensation dispute has retired to consider the case.

IF it took the Flood Tribunal almost four years to determine the purpose of three separate payments to just one politician, Ray Burke, how long will it need to examine allegations that Frank Dunlop alone paid out almost £300,000 to dozens of councillors in the early 1990s?

IT’S a mystery that would challenge the abilities of Kojak and Columbo combined.

JACKSON Way Properties valued their massive compensation claim against the State on the basis that the last section of the M50 motorway cut their lands off from the upmarket Foxrock neighbourhood of south Co Dublin.

JACKSON Way Properties have claimed it is not necessary to build the last section of the M50 motorway because upgraded existing roads would be adequate to take the volumes of traffic in the area.

JACKSON WAY PROPERTIES have knocked off more than half the multi-million euro pay-out they were demanding in compensation for losing lands at Carrickmines to the last leg of the M50 motorway.

THE Flood Tribunal should investigate possible links between the enigmatic Jacksons Way development group and the controversy surrounding the C ring motorway in Dublin.