Dunlop 'sought some Jackson Way land as fee'

Mr Frank Dunlop wanted a success fee of several acres of Jackson Way land - worth several million euro - in return for getting the company's land at Carrickmines rezoned, the Flood tribunal has been told.

According to Mr John Caldwell, the solicitor who is one of the owners of the land, Mr Dunlop eventually negotiated a fee of one commercial acre with the other owner, Mr Jim Kennedy.

In a statement read to the tribunal yesterday, Mr Caldwell said he never discussed or had any dealings regarding the Carrickmines land with the former Fianna Fáil TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, at any time. To the best of his knowledge, Mr Lawlor never had anything to do with the land.

Mr Dunlop has alleged that Mr Lawlor was involved in the ownership of Jackson Way, and in attempts to have the land rezoned.

Mr Caldwell yesterday referred to Mr Jim Kennedy's loss of self-esteem as a result of the financial setbacks he suffered during the 1980s. He said Mr Lawlor was not then aware that he (Mr Caldwell) had any involvement with the land; at this time, Mr Kennedy was the only figure linked to its ownership.

The complex offshore financial structures put in place for Jackson Way and its predecessor, Paisley Park, were there for reasons of "structured tax planning and asset protection", he explained. The Carrickmines lands were a long-term investment but Mr Kennedy had become concerned about his position after he nearly drowned in a swimming accident two years ago.

The original line proposed for the South-Eastern motorway did not divide the Jackson Way lands and therefore left the property as one developable unit, the witness said.

He had no recollection of discussing with Mr Kennedy a motion to realign the route for the motorway which was proposed by Cllr Tony Fox in 1992.

Mr Caldwell described a 1992 motion calling for the rezoning of the Paisley Park land as "the only shot in Paisley Park's gun".

In 1996, a second attempt began to have Jackson Way's land rezoned. But Mr Caldwell said the company was effectively "piggybacking" on the efforts of neighbouring landowners Mr O'Halloran, Dr Darragh and Mr Kilcoyne.

If they were successful, "that was great" and if they weren't, nothing was lost.

At that stage, the motorway was "miles away", the land was debt-free and a compensation claim had been lodged in respect of compulsorily acquired land for the motorway.

Jackson Way subsequently entered a dispute with Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council over access to its lands.

The company ended up in "a Catch 22 situation", according to Mr Caldwell: on the one hand, the council was denying it agricultural access to the land and, on the other, it was saying the land could not be rezoned from agricultural use.

The company's approach was to try to resolve the issue by negotiations, and then by litigation.