Dunlop ‘nearly fell off his chair’ at Gilmartin’s fraud squad threat

FORMER government press secretary Frank Dunlop “nearly fell off his chair” after hearing developer Tom Gilmartin threaten to call in the Garda Fraud Squad over his Quarryvale project, the Mahon Planning Tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr Gilmartin, who had been attempting to develop the site into a major shopping centre in Dublin’s western suburbs, was describing the scene in a Dublin city centre hotel ahead of a crucial council vote to rezone Quarryvale on May 16, 1991.

Ultimately, the Sligo-born developer — now a leading witness at the current probe into the Quarryvale development — lost out. He claimed he was forced to hand over the development to former business partner, Cork-based Owen O’Callaghan, amid pressure from AIB bank which was financing the deal.

Piloted by Mr O’Callaghan, the Quarryvale project later became the giant Liffey Valley shopping centre just off the M50 motorway.

Recalling a meeting in a room of the Royal Dublin Hotel — close to the council offices on O’Connell Street, Mr Gilmartin said Mr Dunlop “dropped his pen and nearly fell off his chair” when he (Gilmartin) mentioned calling in the gardaí.

Mr Gilmartin told tribunal lawyer Pat Quinn SC he had threatened to call in the fraud squad “because of the shenanigans going on” in relation to Quarryvale. It seemed the “whole show” in the council was being run by Mr Dunlop, the late Fianna Fáil TD Liam Lawlor and Mr O’Callaghan, he added.

“Here it was: my show, my scheme — and it was being run by a crowd of gangsters,” said Mr Gilmartin. His own concern was to protect his investment; Mr O’Callaghan had no investment in Quarryvale at the time but had the political connections, Mr Gilmartin claimed.

After describing Mr Dunlop’s reaction in the hotel room to the Fraud Squad reference, Mr Gilmartin said John Deane (Mr O’Callaghan’s associate) nearly had a heart attack and FF councillor John Gilbride begged him not to — “that I could bugger the whole thing up. At that stage,” said Mr Gilmartin, “I didn’t care; I didn’t give a damn.”