Disclosures place councillor in spotlight

APART from Liam Lawlor, of all the names revealed at the Flood Tribunal to have been on the receiving end of rezoning kickbacks, the one that stands out most is that of Colm McGrath, an Independent member of South Dublin County Council.

He is the man who, because of his alleged appetite for bribes, was dubbed ‘Mr Insatiable’ by public relations consultant Frank Dunlop, the man at the centre of the tribunal’s disclosures who himself enjoys the soubriquet of ‘Mr Canary’.

Mr McGrath, who lives in Moyle Park, Clondalkin, is said to have received thousands of pounds in payments, including £2,000 in connection with the attempt to have 100 acres of land rezoned at Carrickmines, Co Dublin, in the early 1990s. Mr Dunlop claims he paid an overall sum of £25,000 to councillors in relation to Carrickmines.

First selected by Fianna Fáil to run in the local elections of 1985, Mr McGrath sat as a councillor for the Clondalkin area. He was also selected as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the 1991 elections.

An unsuccessful candidate for Dublin South-West in the 1997 general election, he served as chairman of the Dublin Regional Authority in 1998 and the following year was selected as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the local elections.

However, his name was dropped from the list of party candidates when it emerged he was under investigation by the Flood Tribunal.

He subsequently ran as an Independent, replacing the Fianna Fáil logo on his election literature with the McGrath family crest, with its motto ‘This We Hold in Trust’. With over 1,000 votes, he topped the poll in the Clondalkin area.

Mr McGrath, who has consistently denied any impropriety, was also named to the Flood tribunal in December 2000 as having received £30,000 in connection with the rezoning of lands at Lucan, west Dublin, in 1993. Maynooth auctioneer Willy Coonan said he had given two cash payments of £15,000 to McGrath, one in a hotel car park in Lucan and the other in a square outside Mr Coonan’s office in Maynooth.

The rezoning caused controversy in the early 1990s. In February 1993, when the council was preparing the draft development plan, Mr McGrath proposed the rezoning and it was passed by one vote.

However, the following October the council, after receiving thousands of representations on the matter, decided to abandon it.

Mr McGrath was the proposer of the original 1991 motion to rezone the site on which the massive Quarryvale shopping centre was built. As the only Fianna Fáil councillor in the Clondalkin area, his support was crucial especially when Liam Lawlor lost his council seat that same year.

Mr McGrath played an important part in winning over sceptical councillors to developer Owen O’Callaghan’s plans between 1991 and 1993. As the centre was being built, Mr McGrath’s company, Essential Services, provided security services on the site.

When, in April 2000, Mr Dunlop first admitted to the Flood Tribunal that he had made payments to councillors on behalf of property developers, Fianna Fáil set up an internal inquiry which involved every party councillor in the Dublin area. Although at that stage an Independent, they asked Mr McGrath to attend but he declined.

Mr McGrath declined to discuss the payments he is alleged to have received, saying he was “precluded” by the tribunal from doing so. Asked yesterday if he still felt he did not require legal representation, Mr McGrath said he would keep his options open. “You never know,” he said, emphasising that he had “co-operated fully with the tribunal”.