Dunphy: If O’Callaghan said I was mistaken, I would accept it

BROADCASTER Eamon Dunphy described the property developer he believed indicated Bertie Ahern was paid inducements, as “a straightforward and honest man” at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday.

He also repeatedly described Owen O’Callaghan as a first-class person for whom he held the highest regard.

And after a prolonged cross-examination by the Cork businessman’s legal team, Mr Dunphy conceded: “If Mr O’Callaghan were to come in and say I was mistaken, I would accept it.”

The admission came after intensive questioning about his view of Mr O’Callaghan by Paul Sreenan SC.

When the lawyer asked him about Mr O’Callaghan’s comments relating to the Taoiseach, Mr Dunphy said: “I did not know whether he was telling the truth. I did not know it to be true or otherwise. I found him to be straightforward and honest and a reliable and trustworthy man. It is possible to regard as first class a person who, in order to get their business done has to get engaged in corruption. At one stage when talking about his role as a developer he said there was no other way to get ahead but to deal with ‘these people’.”

“These people’ were the people in the papers who were accused of corruption” but Mr Dunphy did not speak directly of corrupt councillors.

Quizzed by Colm Ó hOisin, counsel for Mr Ahern, Mr Dunphy said he had no evidence or proof that what he said about the Taoiseach had happened.

He added: “I understood something had happened and communicated that to the tribunal.”

Mr Dunphy described himself as “a very flawed human being”, accepting he may have used “loose language that was quickly corrected” in early reports of his discussions with Mr O’Callaghan. He declared that “there are no priestly attributes in journalism”.

He stressed, however, that he had laid aside his journalist’s hat when he got involved in Wimbledon FC.

He rejected Mr Sreenan’s claim that he may have lacked moral courage in failing to approach the tribunal about the serious allegations Mr O’Callaghan had related to him until last year.

He also dismissed any suggestion that he had been motivated in going to the tribunal by the “sinister”, allegedly official, leaking of a document about his journalist friend Frank Connolly.

But Mr Dunphy also said: “I was reluctant to disclose confidential information. But I was less reluctant after what happened to Frank. I did not believe it was a smoking gun. It was a piece of hearsay. I was not convinced of its value. Frank persuaded me it was not as insignificant as that. But I was not pressured at all. Some more iron entered my soul at some point, and I was more willing subsequently to testify.”

In an emotional outburst he said to Mr Sreenan: “If you are suggesting for one minute that I would come to this tribunal and perjure myself and damage the Taoiseach of this country and a businessman for whom I have the highest regard to wreak revenge for what was done to Frank Connolly then that is an outrage.

The idea that I would concoct such a story at length is mad.”

Mr Dunphy accepted what he had heard amounted to hearsay, and also declared: “As far as I know, Mr Ahern is not a corrupt politician. I am going to await the findings of this investigation before I make that judgment.”