Property developer donated £200 to councillor voting on rezoning

A property developer made a donation of £200 to a Fine Gael councillor in Dublin on condition that he did not vote against him, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.

The tribunal heard the conditions were set out in a compliments slip attached to a cheque sent by developer Joe Tiernan to Cathal Boland, a councillor in Fingal, in April 1994. The slip said: "on condition that you do not vote against me." The word "not" was underlined twice.

Cllr Boland returned the cheque to the developer, with a note saying: "Joe, many thanks but I never accept conditions."

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Tiernan acknowledged sending the cheque to Cllr Boland on foot of a request to support a fund-raising event. However, he insisted that it was not a bribe.

Counsel for the tribunal Henry Murphy SC said Cllr Boland had written to the inquiry, providing details of the cheque and the notes. He said the councillor had assumed up to recently that Mr Tiernan's involvement with land at Balheary near Swords, which is currently under investigation by the tribunal, ended in 1993. However, the tribunal has heard that there were further moves to have the lands rezoned for housing in 1995 as part of the review of the Fingal development plan.

Mr Tiernan had an option on the land which the Christian Brothers owned. Asked by Mr Murphy whether the note constituted a bribe, Mr Tiernan replied "no". He said he had been approached initially by Cllr Boland for a contribution.

"I cannot see how that can be construed as a bribe," he said.

He said that he had not made payments to any other councillors on the same basis. Mr Tiernan said that he made political donations to a number of councillors in 1991 and 1992.

Asked by Mr Murphy as to why a developer would make payments to councillors who within a year or two could be voting on proposals that could make him a lot of money, Mr Tiernan said that this this was done for the furtherance of democracy.

Mr Tiernan also revealed that he had given payments of £8,000 to the late Fianna Fáil politician Liam Lawlor. He also said his company had carried out work on Mr Lawlor's garden at a cost of £7,000. He said he had not raised an invoice for this work and that Mr Lawlor had never attempted to pay the cost.

Mr Tiernan said Mr Lawlor had been a friend for many years. He maintained that the money had nothing to do with business or politics.

Earlier, Mr Tiernan told the tribunal he would be disappointed if former minister Ray Burke had opposed the Balheary rezoning plan because of his political affiliation to Fine Gael.

He said he had no knowledge of any antipathy from Mr Burke.