Businessman made £12,000 clandestine cash payment to Dunlop

BUSINESSMAN Denis Mahony admitted to the Mahon Tribunal yesterday that cash payments totalling £12,000 he made to former lobbyist Frank Dunlop could be considered “clandestine and hidden transactions”.

Mr Mahony, a car dealer, kept no records of the two payments £10,000 for helping efforts to get land he owned in North Co Dublin rezoned a decade ago and £2,000 several months later when Mr Dunlop demanded a "success fee".

Admitting these transactions were "unusual", he said he kept some funds at home in his safe for security reasons and had used some of this money. The money came from his own business and was reflected in the accounts.

He agreed he did not normally conduct commercial transactions on a cash basis and told the tribunal he had never previously paid over cash in a commercial transaction. But he explained he was so happy to get Mr Dunlop to do the work that he readily agreed when he sought cash.

After the lands were rezoned, the tribunal heard, Mr Mahony transferred the 14 hectares to his daughter and the property was sold to Ballymore Homes in July 2000 for £13.5 million, the ultimate price being described by Mr Dunlop's barrister Colm Allen SC as "a tidy little profit." The lands were currently being developed.

Pressed by tribunal barrister Patricia Dillon SC on the circumstances of the second cash payment, Mr Mahony admitted being angry that he was being asked for more money when he felt the matter had been agreed the previous September.

He could have refused to pay as it wasn't his method to pay people who weren't entitled to it but, "if £2,000 made an amicable settlement, it was cheap." Asked repeatedly why he paid, Mr Mahony said it made for a "happy ending" and finished off the transaction.

He agreed cash was untraceable and that he could have made out a cheque to cash.

Denying the second payment was blackmail on the part of Mr Dunlop, Mr Mahony said their meeting wasn't a big deal or boxing match, but an easy deal and he also denied he knew Mr Dunlop was using the money to bribe councillors.

Witness described meeting Mr Dunlop in Dublin's Berkeley Court Hotel in February, 1994, when the lobbyist demanded the success fee. The previous September, Dublin county councillors had voted to rezone Mr Mahony's lands for which he gave Mr Dunlop the £10,000 fee they had agreed on.

Mr Allen, for Mr Dunlop, put it to Mr Mahony that when he gave over the cash he did so in the knowledge that at least part of it would be used to make payments to councillors. "I had absolutely no idea it never crossed my mind that it would be used for the purpose of paying councillors," Mr Mahony insisted.

When Mr Allen said the effect of making payment in cash was to ensure that nobody but Mr Mahony and Mr Dunlop would know about the transaction, Mr Mahony said he had never denied that.

Today two former government members and Fine Gael councillors are due to give evidence. Mrs Nora Owen is a former Minister for Justice, and Sean Barrett was Minister for Defence and the Marine and a former government chief whip.