Dunlop denies forging diaries

FORMER Government press secretary Frank Dunlop has denied accusations that he forged his diaries to implicate Fine Gael councillor Liam Cosgrave in allegations of planning corruption.

Mr Dunlop yesterday refuted claims there was circumstantial evidence to suggest he had made an entry about a payment to Mr Cosgrave in his 1992 diary after the establishment of the Flood Tribunal five years later.

Mr Cosgrave’s barrister, Michael O’Higgins SC, claimed there were several inconsistencies in Mr Dunlop’s account of how he handed £5,000 to his client near a church on Newtownpark Ave, Blackrock, Co Dublin before a funeral on November 11, 1992. The inquiry has heard the tribunal has been unable to establish that a funeral took place in the church on that date.

However, Mr Dunlop said all the entries for the date in question were written in the same hand with the same pen. He rejected the suggestion that the diary entry “LTC” could refer to another councillor with the same initials (Liam Creaven).

The political lobbyist also denied other claims he had devised a complicated strategy to deceive the tribunal. Mr O’Higgins said Mr Dunlop had made a false declaration to the Revenue Commissioners to lead a false trail before coming to the tribunal.

He said it was part of Mr Dunlop’s strategy of mixing pieces of the truth with lies so “the whole thing is impossible to unravel”.

Mr Dunlop admitted he had breached instructions by the tribunal to treat all correspondence from the inquiry’s legal team as confidential because he had discussed the investigation with “a wide range of people, including politicians and developers”.

He also gave the tribunal with the name of the person whom he believes leaked details of an alleged demand for £250,000 made by the late FG councillor Tom Hand for his support on the rezoning of Quarryvale.

Mr Dunlop rejected suggestions by Mr O’Higgins that he passed the information about the alleged bribe to Irish Independent journalist Sam Smyth. He said Mr Dunlop had wrongly claimed Mr Hand was the only politician to demand money for votes during his first appearance as a witness at the tribunal in April 2000 because he regarded the dead man as a soft target.