Flood report: The retired assistant Dublin city and county manager George Redmond received corrupt payments from a property developer and a builder, the planning tribunal has found.
The secret payments from the developer, Mr Joseph Murphy jnr, and the builder, Mr Michael Bailey, related to land developments in the late 1980s.
The tribunal's former chairman, Mr Justice Flood, also said in his report that Redmond, Mr Murphy and Mr Bailey each hindered and obstructed the work of the inquiry. Mr Frank Reynolds, who attended a meeting with the three men, was also found to have hindered and obstructed the tribunal.
The judge upheld the corruption allegations made by Mr James Gogarty, a retired businessman. Mr Gogarty was chairman of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering (JMSE), the company was established by Mr Joseph Murphy snr, father of Mr Joseph Murphy jnr.
Redmond's counter-allegation that he received £25,000 from Mr Gogarty was dismissed as an invention by the judge.
While the report into Redmond's activities was completed in September 2002, it was not published until yesterday due to separate criminal proceedings against him for corruption. Redmond is serving a 12-month prison sentence in that case.
The 21-page report deals with four corrupt payments to Redmond, who was found to have been in receipt of regular and substantial payments from planners and developers in Dublin since the 1960s.
Redmond received the first corrupt payment from Mr Joseph Murphy jnr at a meeting in the Clontarf Castle Hotel. The meeting was also attended by Mr Bailey, Mr Gogarty and Mr Reynolds. The payment concerned a north Co Dublin property at Forrest Road, Swords. Owned by JMSE, the property was later sold to Mr Bailey.
Mr Gogarty told the inquiry that Mr Joseph Murphy snr was aware that the planning permission on the land was about to run out in 1988. He said Mr Murphy wished to sell the lands with the benefit of their existing development status.
The tribunal said Redmond devised a strategy which resulted in service charges and levies being fixed at their 1983 level for two years after planning permission expired. "The tribunal is satisfied that Mr George Redmond demanded 10 per cent of the saving achieved by following his strategy as payment for his services," the judge said.
He said Redmond received a payment of not less than £12,246 for providing this service.
"The tribunal is satisfied that this payment was made to Mr George Redmond by Mr Joseph Murphy jnr and that it amounted to a corrupt payment." Redmond received the money after claiming that the charges, payable upon the development of the land, would have been at least 100 per cent greater than those fixed in 1983 if new planning permission was secured without his assistance.
Mr Bailey, through his company Princess Homes, purchased the Forrest Road lands for £1.45 million and sold them on for £1.827 million. He was found to have been a beneficiary of the decision of Dublin County Council to fix the service charges. The tribunal said Mr Bailey would have paid less than the £1.45 million "were it not for the fact that the service charges levied were fixed at their 1983 level".
Mr Bailey claimed to lack knowledge of the Murphy companies' attempts to freeze the service charges. However, the tribunal said Mr Bailey "was at all times aware that the Murphy interests were pursuing a course with Mr Redmond to achieve that end".
The report said Redmond invented the claim to have received £25,000 from Mr Gogarty "so as to have available to him an alternative explanation to that of Mr Gogarty for the receipt by him of the Murphy company money and for his presence at the Clontarf Castle Hotel".
Mr Bailey was found to have made three corrupt payments to Redmond for information which was which was not available to him from other sources. The payments, made in the 18 months before July 1989, were in sums of £16,000-£20,000.
It said Redmond's authorisation in 1989 for Dublin County Council to acquire land owned by Princess Holdings, in the Ward River Valley, near Swords, "was a decision taken by him at the request of Mr Michael Bailey".
The tribunal said Mr Joseph Murphy jnr paid £15,000 to Redmond as compensation for not appointing him as a consultant to the Murphy companies when he retired in June 1989. The payment was made at a separate meeting in the Clontarf Castle Hotel.
However, the tribunal said the payment did not fall within the definition of a corrupt payment in the Act under which the tribunal operates because the payment was made after his retired.
"This offer of employment was an inducement made to Mr Redmond, during the course of his employment with Dublin County Council, with the intention that he would thereafter favourably consider any matters concerning the Murphy companies' lands in the performance of his official duties for Dublin County Council."
