Councillor told meeting on rezoning 'worth your while'

Mahon tribunal:A Fine Gael councillor has said a party colleague indicated it would be "worth his while" if he met a businessman seeking the rezoning of land at Dundrum in south Dublin.

Donal Marren told the Mahon tribunal yesterday the late Fine Gael councillor Tom Hand made the remark to him in the party's room in the former Dublin county council offices in the early 1990s.

He said Mr Hand urged him to meet businessman Aidan Kelly, who was seeking the rezoning of the Pye lands where the Dundrum Town Centre is now located.

"As he left, he said something to the effect, I can't be exactly correct, but it sounded like worth your while, make it worth your while or it'll be worth your while or something like that," Mr Marren said.

He said he had asked Mr Hand rather sharply what he meant but he got no reply.

Mr Marren said the comments had left him uneasy.

However, he said the meeting with Mr Kelly some days later had been totally business-like and nothing untoward had happened.

Mr Marren said he had not pursued the matter with Mr Hand but he had reported the incident to a Fine Gael party inquiry some years later.

Counsel for the tribunal Patricia Dillon SC said that in ordinary language comments such as "it'll be worth your while" generally meant some financial benefit.

Mr Marren said this could be the case but Mr Hand could also have spoken in jest.

Former Dublin assistant city and county manager George Redmond told the tribunal he felt he was being "stitched" into having some role in the issue of the Pye lands when he had no involvement.

Mr Redmond accepted he may have met Mr Kelly.

Mr Kelly has said he visited Mr Redmond with a third party but later Mr Redmond phoned him and said, in effect, that the next time he went to see him he should come alone.

Mr Redmond said yesterday if he did make such a call it would have been to object that the third party brought along was a councillor.

He said the issue of the manager meeting one councillor in such circumstances would have been raised subsequently in the council.

Mr Redmond said he had confessed to receiving "something" from one person in the Dublin county council building.

This had not been for planning and there were justifiable reasons at the time, Mr Redmond said.