MAHON TRIBUNAL:CORK DEVELOPER Owen O'Callaghan did not consider a political donation he made to the late Liam Lawlor as "over the top", even though it was at the time almost half a TD's annual salary, the Mahon tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr O'Callaghan also said he did not identify in writing to his bank that two £10,000 payments were donations to politicians because "they were political payments".
The planning tribunal is questioning Mr O'Callaghan as part of the Quarryvale II module, an investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the rezoning of land on which the Liffey Valley shopping centre is built.
The tribunal heard that Mr O'Callaghan gave £10,000 to the late Liam Lawlor and £10,000 to former Fianna Fáil councillor Colm McGrath in September 1991. Both amounts were donations he had promised to make toward the June 1991 local elections, Mr O'Callaghan said, though he did not make them until the autumn.
Counsel for the tribunal, Patricia Dillon SC, said the amounts were paid from Mr O'Callaghan's personal account and later reimbursed by his company Riga Ltd.
Riga Ltd in turn was reimbursed by Barkhill, the company which controlled the Quarryvale development and in which Mr O'Callaghan was a 40 per cent stakeholder. Developer Tom Gilmartin also had 40 per cent of Barkhill and AIB had 20 per cent.
Ms Dillon said there was nothing in writing at all to connect Riga with the two payments to Mr Lawlor and Mr McGrath.
"The only record that existed of the true nature of these payments . . . rested with you, isn't that right?" Ms Dillon asked. Mr O'Callaghan agreed.
Ms Dillon said a letter to the bank in December 1991 included the two expenses in a list of costs and had "will explain Friday" beside them. She asked Mr O'Callaghan why he did not identify them as political donations to Mr Lawlor and Mr McGrath.
"Probably because they were political payments," Mr O'Callaghan said.
"Is that because you would have been reticent about disclosing your political payments to anybody including your bankers?" Ms Dillon asked.
"Well in writing, yes," Mr O'Callaghan replied. He said, however, that he told banker Eddie Kay about them at a meeting which followed the letter.
Ms Dillon pointed out that Mr Kay said if he had been told he would have remembered and the bank would have been most unhappy about it. She asked Mr O'Callaghan if he thought a donation of £10,000 was significant, given that TDs earned £21,000 a year at the time.
Mr O'Callaghan said he did not consider it over the top, since both men had run expensive campaigns. He did not tell Mr Gilmartin of the payments and did not discuss them with his lobbyist Frank Dunlop.
"So would it be fair to say then, Mr O'Callaghan, that your modus operandi . . . was to as far as possible keep them a secret or keep them known only to the person who has asked you for the money and yourself?" Ms Dillon said.
"Absolutely," he replied.
