Lawlor withdraws ‘post-Westmeath-seat-loss syndrome’ remarks

FORMER Fianna Fáil TD, Liam Lawlor withdrew an allegation as a result of pressure from the inquiry’s chairman that his former party colleague Mary O’Rourke was motivated by bitterness when giving evidence to the Planning Tribunal on Monday.

However, the controversial ex-politician repeated his claims outside the hearing that Ms O’Rourke was suffering from “post-Westmeath-seat-loss syndrome”.

Mr Lawlor made his initial comments in his sixth day of cross-examining the property developer, Tom Gilmartin yesterday.

They arose as the former TD attempted to high-light discrepancies in the evidence between Ms O’Rourke and the witness about a meeting between Mr Gilmartin and a group of Fianna Fáil ministers in Leinster House in 1989.

The remark about a “post-Westmeath-seat-loss syndrome” is a thinly-veiled reference to the fact that Ms O’Rourke lost the seat she had held since 1982 to party rival Donie Cassidy in the 2002 general election.

However, tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon intervened to instruct Mr Lawlor it was not a proper question to put.

Mr Lawlor replied: “I’ll answer it myself. I believe ‘yes.’” After a mid-morning break, Judge Mahon returned to the issue by warning the former TD his comments would be “construed by many” as suggesting Ms O’Rourke had made up her evidence to damage “some other people in politics”.

The chairman invited Mr Lawlor to withdraw his comment. However, Judge Mahon accepted he could not force Mr Lawlor to do so. But he also noted Mr Lawlor had not raised the issue with Ms O’Rourke when he cross-examined her the previous day.

Mr Lawlor accepted it was more a political issue than one for the tribunal. Pressed twice more by the chairman to withdraw the allegation, he eventually agreed to do so.

Mr Lawlor repeated his claim that the comment was “much more applicable to the political arena.”

Later, when asked by reporters if he stood over his remarks outside the hearing, Mr Lawlor reasserted his belief Ms O’Rourke was suffering from “post-Westmeath-seat-loss syndrome” and was “very bitter about the loss of her seat.”

“I think the Taoiseach and P J Mara are getting full credit for adding Donie Cassidy to the ticket and the people of Westmeath favoured Donie Cassidy to Mary O’Rourke,” he said.

Asked if he believed that this had influenced Ms O’Rourke’s evidence, Mr Lawlor said that was a question for her to answer.

He explained his failure to put the question directly to the former minister was because he had only had time to reflect on her evidence in the previous night.

Last night, Ms O’Rourke said any suggestion she had committed perjury in her appearance at Dublin Castle on Monday was untrue.