O’Callaghan loses tribunal challenge

Owen O’Callaghan, the Cork-based developer, has lost his legal challenge to the Mahon Tribunal, which found he was involved in making corrupt payments to councillors over the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in Dublin was built.

He had claimed the findings were based on vague and uncertain definitions of corruption and that the tribunal gave him no opportunity to address the findings before its final report was published.

The tribunal decided, among other findings, that Mr O’Callaghan paid lobbyist Frank Dunlop £70,000 in Nov 1992 for which the primary purpose was to fund payments to politicians associated with the Quarryvale/Liffey Valley project. It found that Mr O’Callaghan was fully aware and actively engaged in the “corrupt disbursement” of substantial monies by Mr Dunlop. He has always maintained he knew nothing of Mr Dunlop’s corrupt payments.