Tribunal Worries for Embattled TD

By Mairead Carey

THINGS couldn’t get much worse for troubled Fianna Fail TD (Member of Parliament) G.V. Wright. 

Last month he appeared in court on drunk driving charges after knocking down a pedestrian on his way home from the Dail (Parliament). He faces criminal as well as a civil suit as a result. And on Tuesday he was accused of taking a £2,000 bribe from lobbyist Frank Dunlop. 

The latest controversy surrounding the well-known Dublin TD was played out at the planning tribunal on Tuesday. According to lawyers for the tribunal, Wright is accused of accepting the money, which was wrapped in a newspaper, at a meeting in the Dail bar. 

The alleged bribe is said to have been made in 1993 in return for his support for a rezoning motion.

The land in question was owned by two Dublin businessmen, car dealer Denis Mahogany and well-known accountant Noel Fox. They wanted the land rezoned from agricultural use to residential use which would increase the value of the property. 

The rezoning was eventually agreed, despite objections from over 2,500 locals and despite advice from county planners who were against the move. The land was sold three years ago for £13.5 million.

Records show that all the councilors, whom Dunlop claims to have bribed in relation to the motion, supported the plan despite local opposition.

Dunlop is a former government press secretary turned lobbyist and is the main whistle blower at the tribunal. His evidence is crucial to the planning inquiry which has been investigating corruption in the planning process for the last five years. 

In this latest twist, he claims that he was paid £12,000 by the two landowners to secure the rezoning motions. Wright, he says, was originally lined up to secure the rezoning but was too busy to lobby councilors, and instead handed the job to Dunlop. 

Dunlop agreed in return for a fee of £10,000 plus an additional £2,000 success fee. 

Wright denies ever receiving the money, but he did admit to a Fianna Fail inquiry in 2000 that he received £3,000 from Dunlop in November 1993 as an unsolicited, legitimate political donation. The landowners also deny bribery. 

The latest Dunlop revelations begin a new chapter in the long-running tribunal which was originally chaired by Judge Fergus Flood. 

He controversially resigned earlier this year, leaving the question of legal costs in disarray. He was succeeded by Judge Alan Mahon who has enjoyed only the briefest of honeymoon periods. 

Earlier this month it was revealed that Judge Mahon was forced to make a tax settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in 1992 for failing to pay all his taxes. 

That revelation was music to the hears of another former Fianna Fail TD, Liam Lawlor, who was due to receive a bill from Judge Mahon for failing to cooperate with the tribunal. 

Last week, when Lawlor raised the issue of the judge’s tax affairs, the chairman turned off the microphone at the tribunal so that he could not be heard. 

Lawlor persisted, however, and went so far as to call for a Garda (police) investigation into a newspaper article which, he said, was “very prejudicial” to him because it claimed he was the source of the story about Judge Mahon’s tax settlement. 

Things got so fraught that the judge eventually walked out of the Tribunal and shut up shop for the day. 

Tribunal lawyers want Lawlor to pay legal costs for his non-compliance with an order for discovery made by the tribunal. 

On Tuesday the tribunal backed down in the face of opposition from other parties and deferred its decision to an unspecified date.