Councillor lied to tribunal, says witness

A former secretary has claimed that the lobbyist Frank Dunlop was involved in the preparation of statements submitted by two councillors to the planning tribunal in relation to its investigation of a planning rezoning in north Dublin.

Mary Maguire gave evidence to the tribunal yesterday that Mr Dunlop had called to the home of former Fine Gael TD Michael Joe Cosgrave in Baldoyle on up to three occasions.

She was Mr Cosgrave's constituency secretary. She said that afterwards she had typed letters to the inquiry on behalf of her employer and another councillor, Liam Creaven of Fianna Fáil.

The tribunal heard that Ms Maguire had left the employment of Mr Cosgrave in August 2004 in acrimonious circumstances.

On her departure she downloaded onto a floppy disk a number of items from the computer in Mr Cosgrave's office, including the letters she had typed for the two councillors. She subsequently passed the disk to the tribunal.

Lawyers for the tribunal have contended that an analysis of the disk indicated that the letters submitted by Mr Cosgrave and Mr Creaven had been written on the same computer within 15 to 20 minutes of each other.

Ms Maguire said that on March 26th, 2003, she had been told by Mr Cosgrave that he would be having a special visitor the following day, and that he was not to be disturbed.

She said that the following morning Mr Cosgrave had been "edgy". She later saw a blue Mercedes parked in the councillor's driveway. As the vehicle pulled out, she was astonished to see Mr Dunlop.

Ms Maguire said she had asked Mr Cosgrave: "Was that who I thought it was?" But he had just put his fingers to his lips, indicating she should say nothing.

Afterwards, Mr Cosgrave had given her a letter to type out, and had asked her whether another one for Mr Creaven could be made to look different.

Ms Maguire said she had seen Mr Dunlop at Mr Cosgrave's home on a second occasion in April when the former lobbyist was wearing a fleece jacket zipped to his chin and a sports cap.

She said that in October Mr Cosgrave had again told her he was expecting a special visitor, although she had not seen the former government press secretary.

Ms Maguire said that when she saw Mr Cosgrave's denial to the tribunal in November 2003 that he had agreed a format with Mr Creaven for his evidence, she realised this was a "porky pie", a lie.

Ms Maguire told the tribunal she had downloaded the documents when she left Mr Cosgrave's office because she felt insecure and did not want to be "victimised and slandered".

She confirmed that she had labelled a file of correspondence on the computer between Mr Cosgrave and the tribunal as the "brown envelopes file", but claimed this had been done in levity and no insinuations were involved.

Cross-examined by Aidan Redmond, for Mr Dunlop, she said it was her opinion that the former lobbyist had been involved in the preparation of the letters which she had typed for the politicians to the tribunal.

Mr Redmond said she had a suspicious mind, and had told the tribunal in private that she was a nosey person.

Ms Maguire said she had not gone to the tribunal to complain about Mr Cosgrave but "to get things off my chest".