The father-in-law of kidnap victim Mr John O'Grady has told the Flood tribunal he formed an attitude to political donations in 1987 after a £1.5 million ransom was demanded from him from "a political organisation" in return for his son-in-law's life.
Millionaire businessman Dr Austin Darragh, in a statement to the tribunal, said he made several donations thereafter to political groups working to achieve things "without guns and balaclavas".
Mr O'Grady, a dentist, was kidnapped from his home in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, in October 1987 and was held in a basement in Parkgate Street, Dublin, by the so-called "Border Fox", Dessie O'Hare, a one-time member of both the Provisional IRA and the INLA.
When the ransom demand was not met, O'Hare chopped the tops off two of Mr O'Grady's fingers and left them along with a photo of the stumps in a cathedral. After three weeks on the run, O'Hare was arrested during a shoot-out in which he was injured and a companion was killed.
In his statement to the tribunal, Dr Darragh said he was chief executive of Clinical Pharmacology plc and in this capacity made political donations. There were no surplus funds between 1990 and 1992, he said, and at this time also he was taken up with caring for his wife who became terminally ill after the kidnap ordeal.
Dr Darragh is one of three men with a one third share in land adjoining property owned by the controversial English-based company Jackson Way Properties Ltd at Carrickmines in south Dublin. The three shareholders joined with Jackson Way in making a submission to the county council to have their lands rezoned in the late 1990s and the tribunal is investigating whether payments were made to councillors to achieve that aim.
In a statement to the tribunal, read into the record by counsel for the tribunal Mr John Gallagher SC, Dr Darragh said he paid £500 to Mr Frank Dunlop in 1992 so that he would lobby to have the land rezoned. The attempt was unsuccessful.
In 1997, when further attempts were made to rezone the land, he again paid £1,670 to Mr Dunlop for his lobbying services. In addition, Mr Dunlop was to get a £30,000 success fee if the land was rezoned. In the event the effort succeeded and Dr Darragh paid Mr Dunlop £10,000, being his third share of the success fee agreed. The payments were made in June and December 1997 through his fellow shareholders.
"As I have never been involved before or since in planning applications of this sort I can make no comment about the reasonableness or otherwise of the fees sought," he said.
He added that his lack of interest in the day to day handling of the lands was due to the fact that he had become progressively disabled with arthritis and an injury since 1992. He had three major operations and got two new knees and a new hip joint.
He said he never spoke to any council officials or council members about any aspect of the Carrickmines lands, nor did he ever speak to or correspond with gaming arcade owner Mr Jim Kennedy.