The Flood Tribunal has heard that over £18,000 was paid in political contributions by Bovale Developments in a three-month period in 1997. Most of the payments were made in cash and were made in such a way as to disguise the identity of the recipients.
Earlier, Caroline Bailey, the wife of one of Bovale's directors, who kept the company's books was again asked about her admission yesterday that she had falsified entries in the accounts. She said yesterday that she had altered the books a second time before handing them to the Tribunal. This, she claimed, was in order to give the Tribunal an accurate picture. Mrs Bailey was being questioned in detail about the company's accounts for the financial year 1996 to 1997.
Mrs Bailey has admitted she had used fictitious names to disguise payments she now says were political contributions. Last February she corrected those entries before handing the books to the Tribunal. The Tribunal has questioned her contention that she did this in order to be honest with the Tribunal. The Tribunal has found other false entries that were never corrected. Counsel for the Tribunal told Mrs Bailey what she had given them was a paper trail where an entry appeared genuine until other documents showed it was not. Mrs Bailey has also admitted that personal payments to the Bailey family were disguised in the accounts as payments to Dublin Corporation and Dublin County Council.
