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.