Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor said Dublin county councillors would have to be "looked after" to allow the rezoning of Carrickmines land, the lobbyist Mr Frank Dunlop told the tribunal.
Mr Dunlop said Mr Lawlor had told him this on a number of occasions when both were advising businessman Mr Jim Kennedy, who bought the land in 1989, and was seeking to have it rezoned.
According to Mr Dunlop, Mr Kennedy told him the TD owned "a piece" of the land, and his interest was registered overseas in Liechtenstein. He recalled going to see Mr Kennedy at his amusement arcade on Westmoreland Street in January 1991. Mr Kennedy said he'd heard Mr Dunlop could help him to get the Carrickmines lands rezoned.
A payment of £25,000 was agreed. Mr Kennedy knew some of this money would have to be "disbursed" to councillors, Mr Dunlop told the tribunal.
In May 1991, county councillors voted by 21 votes to 19 to leave the zoning of land in Carrickmines as it was in the 1983 county plan. Mr Lawlor voted for the motion, which was against Mr Kennedy's interests.
Mr Dunlop said Mr Kennedy evinced surprise at Mr Lawlor's vote, and expressed himself in unusually strong terms. He questioned why Mr Lawlor had voted in the way he did "in view of the fact that he had a piece of it, or an interest in it". "What the f*** is Liam at?" Mr Dunlop recalled Mr Kennedy as saying.
Mr Dunlop pointed out that if Mr Lawlor had voted the other way, with most of his party colleagues, the vote would have been tied, and the result different. He found the politician's behaviour inconsistent, and "at odds" with the interest Mr Kennedy said he had in the land.
When he asked afterwards, Mr Lawlor told him the vote didn't matter because representations could be made during the public consultation phase of the plan.
In reply to questions from Mr Lawlor, representing himself, Mr Dunlop admitted he lied to councillor Ms Betty Coffey when he told her Mr Lawlor had no interest in the land.
Earlier, Mr Lawlor dismissed claims that he regularly attended meetings with Mr George Redmond at Mr Kennedy's amusement arcade as "a pack of lies".
He described the evidence of a former employee in the arcade, Mr Jude Campion, as "a latter-day fabrication" drawn up from newspaper and television reports.
Mr Lawlor claimed Mr Campion was an "embittered man" who had perjured himself in the witness box. He had told "Machiavellian rhyme and verse for something that never happened".
He said he had tried to help Mr Campion and his late father John in their efforts to acquire a site in Coolmine from Dublin county council for a fuel depot. Mr Lawlor said he made representations on behalf of Mr John Campion, but never met his son. He tried to help but the officials decided against the proposal on planning grounds. As a result, Mr Campion had decided that "someone" was to blame for what had happened to his family. But it wasn't his fault, Mr Lawlor said.
Also yesterday, Mr Lawlor accused the tribunal of "attempted entrapment" during his evidence this week. He said lawyers tried to "ambush" him by cross-examining him about matters other than Carrickmines.
As part of the present module, the tribunal is investigating claims that Mr Lawlor had an interest - which he denies - in these lands. However, he was quizzed on Tuesday about his dealings with Mr Kennedy about other land deals in Lucan.
