A proposal for a national sports stadium at Neilstown, Co Dublin, from Owen O'Callaghan was considered by many people to be a "subterfuge" to avoid the lands being redesignated as the town centre for the north Clondalkin area at Quarryvale's expense, Mr Frank Dunlop told the tribunal.
Asked about the proposal for the stadium in 1992, Mr Dunlop told Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Patrick Hanratty SC: "I don't want to be disingenuous, Mr Hanratty, but most people, while welcoming the project, would regard it as a subterfuge as regards the designation of the land . . . to close off the possibility that the Neilstown lands would ever be redesignated `town centre'. But we replied to that and we spoke about that at the press conference."
Mr Dunlop originally agreed with Mr O'Callaghan that he would be paid £100,000 for his work on the stadium. However, in the end he was paid £95,000. Some £70,000 of that total was paid in November 1992 and the rest in a number of subsequent instalments.
The £70,000 payment was on foot of an invoice from Mr Dunlop's company to Riga Ltd. The work carried out by Mr Dunlop on the project was described as "professional services including media relations, presentation, interview preparation, consultations with the design team and US advisers and investors.
"My function in relation to the stadium was relatively simple in the first instance," Mr Dunlop told the tribunal. "It was to promote the notion and the idea that we could have an all-purpose national stadium." He agreed that it was part of his job to persuade people that the project should go ahead. "Some people took my right arm off with enthusiasm. Other people were very sceptical."
Mr Dunlop said there were definite plans to build it at the time.
Mr Hanratty asked Mr Dunlop: "Was it your instructions that a stadium was in fact going to be built here?" Mr Dunlop replied: "My understanding was that that was absolutely definitive. Plans were drawn up, planning permission was actually applied for and obtained. A model was produced. To all intents and purposes I have no reason to doubt the stadium was going to go ahead."
