BUSINESSMAN JOHN Butler has claimed that telephone and diary records belonging to lobbyist Frank Dunlop were fabricated.
The former owner of the Courtyard restaurant in Donnybrook, Dublin, said there was no way he contacted Mr Dunlop as frequently as his records showed.
Mr Butler was questioned yesterday as part of the tribunal's Cloghran module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding land close to Dublin airport.
Mr Butler and his partners Niall Kenny and Tom Williams were attempting to get the 18 acres at Cloghran rezoned from agricultural to industrial. They hired Mr Dunlop in 1993 to lobby councillors to support the rezoning.
Counsel for the tribunal Pat Quinn said 1993 records showed extensive contacts between Mr Butler and Mr Dunlop. He said Mr Butler had apparently attempted to contact Mr Dunlop at his office on 40 occasions between January and September 1993, according to Mr Dunlop's phone records.
"No way did I make or attempt to make the number of phone calls down on that list," Mr Butler said. "I would be very suspect of that list . . . I think it's a fabrication."