John Corcoran leaving the Mahon Inquiry
GREEN PROPERTIES plc managing director John Corcoran answered questions by senior counsel Patricia Dillon about his business relationship with the late Liam Lawlor.
Mr Corcoran was interested in developing a site in Blanchardstown in 1989 which would rival the Liffey Valley development. The successful rezoning of the Liffey Valley lands from 300,000 to 500,000 (under the County Development plan, 1983) would effectively end his ambitions of securing a similiar rezone for his own project.
In order to expedite this he developed a relationship with the late Dublin West TD Liam Lawlor: “He wasn’t my favorite man”, Mr Corcoran told the Tribunal. He paid Mr Lawlor several sums, which he regarded as consultancy fees, with the aim of blocking a successful rezone of the Quarryvale lands. To this end Mr Lawlor would drop by Mr Corcoran’s office “looking for a few bob”. and provide the developer with invoices in return for countersigned cheques.
Mr Corcoran: “Mr Lawlor was a very avaricious man, all he wanted was as much money as he could get”.
Ends
Filed under: Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fail, Irish politics, irish news, the mahon tribunal | Tagged: Fianna Fail, john corcoran, quarryvale, the mahon tribunal
John Corcoran was suffering from Tribunal fatigue and memory loss this late afternoon. It is in Bertie Ahern’s diary that they were to have met.
Clear facts are hard to come by and you have to be there to see first hand the evidence and credibility of the witnesses.
Michael Stephen Nolan