Mahon tribunal:Former Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton told Frank Dunlop that "neither Fine Gael nor the world is populated by angels" when he was informed about a councillor's demand for £250,000, the tribunal was told yesterday.
Mr Dunlop, a former Fianna Fáil press secretary, told Patricia Dillon, counsel for the tribunal, that he tentatively told a group of Fine Gael councillors whom he met for lunch about the demand from the late Tom Hand for his support of the Quarryvale project.
Mr Dunlop was working for developers Owen O'Callaghan and Tom Gilmartin to garner support for the project. He had paid Mr Hand £20,000, but had subsequently been asked for £250,000, the tribunal heard.
The lunch, in early 1993, included Olivia Mitchell TD, Councillor Therese Ridge, former deputy Marian McGennis and former councillor Mary Elliot, Mr Dunlop said, and was one of a series of lunches.
Ms Dillon asked if this was the "two by four club", as recorded in his diaries.
"Two by four or four by two . . . whichever is a carpentry reference to plank," Mr Dunlop said.
He said they expressed outrage at the demand from Mr Hand and advised Mr Dunlop to inform Mr Bruton.
At a Fine Gael fundraising event in the Red Cow Inn in May 1993, Mr Dunlop said, he again raised the issue with Ms Ridge and she told him that Mr Bruton was present and he should talk to him. Mr Dunlop said he asked Ms Ridge to mention the issue to Mr Bruton first, which she did, and then after dinner he spoke to Mr Bruton.
"Mr Bruton was relatively relaxed," Mr Dunlop said.
"And said something to the effect that neither Fine Gael nor the world was populated by angels. I left the matter there."
Ms Dillon asked if Mr Bruton took any steps in relation to the complaint. Mr Dunlop said nothing was ever done about it.
Ms Dillon said that Mr Bruton told the tribunal he recalled the fundraiser and "social, political tittle-tattle" with Mr Dunlop, but did not recall being told about the demand. He said if he had been told, he would have reacted immediately and been swift to resolve the issue, Ms Dillon said.
She said Ms Ridge would say Mr Dunlop had told her about Mr Hand's demand, that she remembered Mr Dunlop being at the fundraiser, but did not speak to Mr Bruton for him.
Ms Mitchell told the tribunal she remembered Mr Dunlop's complaints, Ms Dillon said, but Ms Elliot had said she was not told of it. Ms McGennis had not yet replied to the tribunal's query.
The late Liam Lawlor had agreed that Mr Dunlop told him about the demand.
Mr Dunlop said Mr Lawlor had responded "good man, Tom", when he told him. Mr Lawlor had also said he was told about Mr Dunlop's conversation with Mr Bruton, Ms Dillon said.
Asked by tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon if he considered following up his complaint with a letter to Mr Bruton, Mr Dunlop said it would have been particularly inappropriate in his circumstances.
"I cannot say definitively that the reason I would not have written such a letter was because I didn't want to be implicated, but certainly in the subculture that existed in politics in the late '80s and early '90s any politician who suggests they weren't suspicious, conscious or aware of activities in Dublin County Council is taking us all for pink elephants," he said.
