IT would be like “shooting yourself in the foot” to ignore a politician’s request for a donation towards their election expenses, a former financial director of Monarch Properties development company admitted to the Mahon Planning Tribunal yesterday.

NINE days before Dublin county councillors voted to rezone its lands, Monarch Properties issued a £15,000 cheque to lobbyist Frank Dunlop, the Mahon planning tribunal heard yesterday.

A former financial director of Monarch Properties has admitted paying political lobbyist Frank Dunlop £85,000 between 1993 and 1995.