Ex-councillor denies he got £2,000 from Dunlop

Former Fianna Fáil councillor James Fahey has denied he received £2,000 in cash from lobbyist Frank Dunlop for his support of the Quarryvale development, but said he was given a cheque, which may have been made out to a third party.

Mr Fahey, a councillor for Mulhuddart in west Dublin, said he received the cheque, possibly from one of Mr Dunlop's companies, before the June 1991 election and he cashed it in a local pub.

Mr Dunlop had told the tribunal that he gave Mr Fahey the money in cash for his support of the Quarryvale project.

The handover took place on 7th June "in a premises between Liffey Street and Abbey Street", Mr Dunlop had said, the day after Mr Fahey had requested money at a meeting in Buswell's Hotel.

The tribunal was told that records showed Mr Dunlop had withdrawn £25,000 in cash from his "war chest" account on the same day.

Mr Fahey denied yesterday that he ever met Mr Dunlop in Buswell's Hotel and said he had "absolutely no contact with Mr Dunlop", but had seen him in the environs of the council.

He told the tribunal that Mr Dunlop was parked outside his office in Mulhuddart when he arrived back from a morning of canvassing shortly before the local election in June 1991. He said Mr Dunlop handed him a cheque and he took it.

"I was very happy in the middle of a campaign . . . to get a donation of £2,000," he said.

Judge Gerald Keys asked Mr Fahey to write down the name of the pub where he cashed the cheque. Counsel for the tribunal Pat Quinn SC asked him if he thought the cheque was made out to him or a third party.

He pointed out that none of Mr Dunlop's accounts recorded any cheques made out to Mr Fahey.

Mr Fahey conceded that the cheque may have been made out to a third party, but could not say. "After I leave here, I intend to do some research into this myself," he said. He said he never asked Mr Dunlop for money for his support of Quarryvale, but Mr Dunlop may have been in receipt of a letter he had issued to raise funds in advance of the election.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times