Councillor denies £5,000 payment was ‘reward’

FORMER Dublin county councillor John O’Halloran has denied that a £5,000 payment he received from Owen O’Callaghan was reward for his support of the property developer’s Quarryvale project.

Speaking at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he insisted it was the developer who had contacted him and given him the cheque in November 1993 saying it was a political donation.

Mr O’Halloran also rejected Mr O’Callaghan’s claim that he had to leave the Labour Party because of his support for the controversial west Dublin development in the mid-1990s. Having been elected in 1985, he later stood as an Independent.

When Mr O’Halloran gave a statement to the tribunal in January 2000 he failed to make any mention of either the £5,000 — received in November 1993 — or a £500 payment from lobbyist Frank Dunlop he had received in May 1999.

The tribunal heard how Mr O’Halloran approached Mr O’Callaghan seeking the catering contract to supply food to the workers building the Quarryvale development that is now the Liffey Valley shopping centre. He got the contract, dating from 1997 onwards.

Less than a month after getting the £5,000 from Mr O’Callaghan, Mr O’Halloran was the lead signatory of a letter to then finance minister Bertie Ahern seeking tax designation for north Clondalkin, including Quarryvale.

Quizzed about his involvement in sending the letter, dated December 4, 1993, Mr O’Halloran said he had “no recollection of the letter at all”.