Dunlop: O’Callaghan funded Cork election trip

PROPERTY developer Owen O’Callaghan picked up the tab when Fine Gael councillor Therese Ridge and lobbyist Frank Dunlop flew to Cork as part of her canvass for the 1993 Seanad election, the Mahon Tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr O’Callaghan took her around and introduced her to a selected number of local Cork councillors whose votes would help elect the new members to the Seanad.

Describing Ms Ridge as an ardent supporter of Mr O’Callaghan’s Quarryvale development, Mr Dunlop said he gave her two cash payments — £1,000 for the 1992 General Election and £500 towards her Seanad campaign.

In the event, Ms Ridge failed to get elected to either House of the Oireachtas.

The lobbyist, who claims he gave improper payments to a number of councillors in the early 1990s to support the Quarryvale project, said his PR office paid for election promotional material for Ms Ridge and he also gave her advice.

Hired by Mr O’Callaghan as a consultant, Mr Dunlop said he organised and paid for Ms Ridge’s trip to Cork and was reimbursed later by Mr O’Callaghan.

He described former Fianna Fáil TD Marian McGennis as having “rode two horses” in her stance on two competing west Dublin developments during the early 1990s.

Publicly, she declared herself anti-Quarryvale and in favour of her local Blanchardstown project being proposed by the rival Green Property company. But Mr Dunlop revealed she attended his office for “strategy meetings” on Quarryvale and offered advice on how the development could be progressed.

Support for Ms McGennis was requested by the late Liam Lawlor, the former Fianna Fáil TD, who was hired as a consultant for the Quarryvale project. That support took the form of outdoor advertising and Mr Dunlop passed on these expenses to Mr O’Callaghan.

Auditors for Mr O’Callaghan’s property company asked for supporting documentation relating to three invoices for £80,000, dated May and June 1991, which were submitted by Mr Dunlop.

Patricia Dillon SC for the tribunal questioned if he had been asked by Mr O’Callaghan’s accountant Aidan Lucey to supply the back-up documents being sought by the auditors. The lobbyist replied that he was never contacted as far as he could recall.

Ms Dillon drew attention to three other invoices for dates in 1991 and 1992 totalling £80,000 that Mr Dunlop submitted to Mr O’Callaghan. Mr Dunlop said he did not keep copies of the invoices. Counsel suggested these documents could have been generated at any time as they were not date stamped as to when they were received by Mr O’Callaghan.

If Mr Dunlop had in fact issued these invoices in 1991 and 1992 she suggested he would have kept copies for record purposes.