There were few places where business interests confronted the public interest as starkly as in the office of the Fianna Fail whip on Dublin County Council during the preparation of a Dublin County Development Plan.
It was in that office in such circumstances that G.V. Wright found himself in 1991. In the three years up to 1994, Mr Wright was a key contact for developers and their agents seeking to persuade the council to make decisions that would give them huge financial benefits.
It was during that period that Mr Wright has admitted he received at least £20,000 in eight donations from six developers and their agents. This was by far the largest amount received by any councillor apart from Mr Liam Lawlor.
Mr Wright has insisted his votes were not influenced by these donations and that he would stand by all decisions he made. In the Fianna Fail report he expresses no view as to why Mr Frank Dunlop, Mr Owen O'Callaghan and others should have singled him out for such generous support.
The money came thick and fast during the period. He got cash payments worth £10,000 from Mr Dunlop and a further £10,000 from Mr O'Callaghan and others in less than two years. There may well be a simple explanation, but it is not yet apparent.
In his evidence to the Fianna Fail inquiry, Mr Wright pointed out that although he was party whip, he did not operate a whip in relation to planning matters and by implication, did not control the votes of other councillors.
Mr Wright suggested that he was responsible for the relaxation of the whip, which was used by his predecessor, Mr Pat Dunne, to organise a block Fianna Fail vote for many controversial planning motions in the 1985-1987 period. However, Cllr Ann Brady told the inquiry that the whip had been relaxed in 1987 by the Fianna Fail councillors themselves, four years before Mr Wright became whip.
However, although there was no formal whip during Mr Wright's period in the job, he had significant influence within his group during a crucial period. With a small number of exceptions, Fianna Fail councillors voted en bloc for many contentious rezoning decisions, although Mr Wright has said he made his own decisions on these matters and had objected to the council management's "no change" attitude.
It was not just his office, but his Dublin North Dail constituency that put G.V. Wright at the centre of the tension between business interests and the public interest. Dublin county councillors pushed through more land rezoning motions in that constituency than any other. Swords, Malahide and Balbriggan were key battlegrounds between developers and objectors.
Mr Ray Burke was investigated a number of times in the past in relation to planning corruption allegations, while two of the three Fine Gael councillors deemed by that party's inquiry not to have co-operated fully - Mr Cathal Boland and Ms Anne Devitt - also come from the constituency.
A Malahide businessman, G.V. Wright is a member of the Wright family, whose fish retail business has expanded into fish-processing and export. Now a full-time public representative, he worked long and hard to establish himself as a TD, fighting general elections since 1982 in the shadow of his constituency colleague, Mr Ray Burke.
However, the usual constituency rivalry did not apply to the relationship between the two men. Mr Wright and Mr Burke worked well together. It was always difficult for Fianna Fail to take two of the four seats here, and Mr Burke and Mr Wright managed it just twice - in 1987 and 1997, when they split the party vote evenly between them.
Mr Wright has a warm, affable manner and is among the most personally popular deputies in Leinster House across all parties. He was close to the Haughey family, whom he lives near, and first became an Oireachtas member in 19821983 as a Taoiseach's nominee to the Seanad. He was elected to the Dail in 1987 on his third attempt, only to lose his seat in 1989. He was again nominated to the Seanad in 1989, where he served until 1997.
He was an able and active senator, becoming assistant Government chief whip there in 1989, chief whip in 1990-1991, leader of the House in 1991-1994 and Fianna Fail leader in the Seanad in 1994-1997.
In 1997 Mr Burke and he split the party vote effectively to take two seats in the four-seat constituency. Mr Ray Burke's resignation from the Dail has changed Mr Wright's long-term electoral prospects, positioning him as a lead Fianna Fail candidate in the constituency, with one of the safest seats around.
However, he must first attempt to clear up the controversy which has erupted over the payments to him, and in particular the statement by Mr O'Callaghan that Mr Wright had asked him for money.
Mr Wright had told the Fianna Fail committee that he had not solicited any of the donations he received. Yesterday Mr O'Callaghan accepted that Mr Wright might have no recollection of the approach for money.
Mr Wright has been difficult for journalists to contact in recent weeks and made no public comment yesterday on the latest controversy.