Dunlop: Fianna Fáil councillor made exorbitant demands

LOBBYIST Frank Dunlop, who alleges spending £112,000 on bribing members of Dublin County Council to support developments in the early 1990s, has singled out one Fianna Fáil councillor he claimed made “exorbitant demands”.

Speaking at yesterday’s sitting of the Mahon Tribunal, Mr Dunlop said there were a lot of anecdotal stories in the Lucan area about Finbar Hanrahan, who allegedly sought £100,000 during a meeting he had with developer Tom Gilmartin in Buswell’s Hotel.

The tribunal has heard how Mr Gilmartin and Cork-based Owen O’Callaghan were partners in the Quarryvale project in west Dublin on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre now stands.

While he himself had no direct evidence of any alleged demands for money by Mr Hanrahan, Mr Dunlop said it was his belief Mr O’Callaghan suspected he was being approached indirectly for money. Mr O’Callaghan had never told him Mr Hanrahan had asked for money for his support.

Mr Dunlop said Mr O’Callaghan had told him about the alleged incident in Buswell’s but most of the information he received about Mr Hanrahan came from the late Liam Lawlor.

Describing how Mr O’Callaghan met Mr Hanrahan on December 17, 1992 ahead of a crucial Quarryvale vote by the council, he said the two “walked around the block”.

Mr Dunlop recalled: “When Mr O’Callaghan came back that evening he was spitting fire. I looked at him quizzically, and — expletives deleted — he told me what Hanrahan could do.” In the event, Mr Hanrahan voted against the Quarryvale rezoning.

Mr Dunlop said his views about Mr Hanrahan were coloured by what Mr Lawlor — a rival in the Lucan area — had told him but he himself had “a visceral and inherent distrust of Mr Hanrahan... I thought Mr Hanrahan was a man who made exorbitant demands”.

Out of £70,000 he sought and Mr O’Callaghan transferred on November 10, 1992, Mr Dunlop denied he gave a specific sum of £55,000 to “a senior FF politician”.

Tribunal lawyer Patricia Dillon SC quizzed Mr Dunlop at length about his reasons for getting Mr O’Callaghan to immediately transfer the £70,000 to his AIB account in Dame Street.

Mr Dunlop’s explanation was that a general election was upcoming and he hurriedly needed to have the money available to him to make donations.