Dunlop denies fabricating meeting to conceal payment

FORMER lobbyist Frank Dunlop denied at the Mahon Tribunal yesterday he fabricated a meeting with a councillor in the early 1990s to conceal a payment of IR£55,000 to a senior politician.

Lawyer David Burke BL, for the late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand, suggested Mr Dunlop had not met former TD and councillor Liam Cosgrave at the south Dublin church at Newtownpark Avenue on November 11, 1992.

He drew attention to changes in Mr Dunlop’s story to the tribunal about the location of the alleged payment. He put it to Mr Dunlop the lobbyist doctored his diary and inserted Mr Cosgrave’s name to cover up the substantial payment to the unnamed “senior politician”.