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.