The Flood tribunal is back today for the first time in a year, but will the politicians come too, asks Paul Cullen. Serious contradictions are set to emerge at the Flood tribunal between the evidence of Frank Dunlop and many of the county councillors to whom he made payments.
While today's hearing is expected to be brief, the divergent versions of Mr Dunlop and the politicians will be quickly revealed when full hearings start, probably next month, into the rezoning of land at Carrickmines in south Dublin in the 1990s.
The former lobbyist and Government press secretary will link the £25,000 he allegedly paid to councillors to attempts to get the land rezoned. However, the politicians will argue that the monies they received were political contributions, usually given at election-time.
However, there are further differences between Mr Dunlop's version and the account given by many Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors to inquiries held by their parties two years ago.
For example, one councillor told his inquiry he never received any donation from Mr Dunlop. However, Mr Dunlop will tell the tribunal he paid the politician £2,000 in relation to the Carrickmines lands. Another told his party he got £1,000 in total, but Mr Dunlop will say he paid this politician £3,000 in relation to this rezoning alone.
Much of the attention today will focus on the politicians identified by Mr Dunlop - will they turn up to seek legal representation, or at least send lawyers to the hearing in Dublin Castle?
But the order in which the tribunal has decided to hear its business is also interesting. Most people expected the lawyers to kick off with hearings into the rezoning of Quarryvale in west Dublin, but instead they are starting with the Carrickmines controversy.
Most of this land was owned by an offshore company, Paisley Park Investments, in the early 1990s and then ownership passed to Jackson Way Properties. Both companies have been linked to allegations that money was paid to councillors in return for their votes on rezonings. Jackson Way in recent years has become a byword for Byzantine financial complexity, and the tribunal has spent several years unravelling its ownership structure.
The company is currently seeking massive compensation from Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown county council for 20 acres of its land that were compulsorily acquired for the south-eastern motorway.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the arbitration proceedings, which are currently under way. These could see the company awarded up to €47 million from the public purse without it having to reveal its full ownership structure and without an answer to the bribery allegations.
This latter scenario is less likely now that the tribunal has opted to delve into both companies' affairs sooner rather than later.
This module will also look at the rezoning of about 20 acres of land adjacent to the Jackson Way holding. This is owned by an architect, Mr Brian O'Halloran, and businessmen Prof Austin Darragh and Mr Gerard Kilcoyne.
Mr O'Halloran has figured in the Telecom affair and also gave evidence to the tribunal briefly last year about work he carried out for Mr Ray Burke's builder friends, Brennan and McGowan.
The future of this land and that of Jackson Way is interlinked. Both suffer from access problems at present which would restrict development.
As a result, the two sets of parties have agreed rights-of-way across their properties to improve access. They also collaborated in court proceedings in relation to the motorway development five years ago.
Massive though its claim against the council may be, the real bonanza for Jackson Way will come if it can get the 60 acres it owns south of the motorway rezoned.
But first the tribunal will have to determine on the circumstances that led to the rest of the land to the north being rezoned five years ago.