When former Irish government press secretary Frank Dunlop was arrested on corruption charges, he told detectives it was a day he and they knew was always coming.

This emerged at his court appearance in Dublin last week on 16 charges linked to the alleged bribery of eight public representatives, six from Fianna Fail and two from Fine Gael.

Judge Cormac Dunne heard that Dunlop, 61, who appeared in court just weeks after receiving a master's degree in law at Trinity College, told the arresting officer, "We always knew this day was coming and I will not be contesting the charges."

Dunlop faces maximum penalties of seven years in jail and a €50,000 fine if convicted at his trial next year in the Circuit Criminal Court.

He was arrested by arrangement at Harcourt Terrace Garda (police) station in Dublin last Friday by officers from the elite Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) which was initially established in the wake of reporter Veronica Guerin's murder to trace and confiscate the assets of crime.

At the trial, Dunlop's lawyers are expected to plead for leniency for him as the only major figure to admit involvement in corruption when he appeared on a number of occasions over eight years before the Mahon tribunal probing corrupt links between politicians and construction industry chiefs.

Under the terms of the establishment of the tribunal Dunlop could not be prosecuted in a criminal court on his evidence to Mahon, but he also made similar admissions in a statement to CAB five years ago which can be used in a criminal hearing.

CAB chiefs are known to be hopeful that a successful conviction of Dunlop will boost efforts to seize €53 million from Jackson Way Properties, a U.K.-registered company which own lands at Carrickmines in South Dublin which are at the center of the rezoning controversy.

Whether individual politicians named in the charges against Dunlop can be prosecuted for their alleged involvement in corruption is likely to be left to the Garda.

The politicians are alleged to have received sums varying from €1,000 to €3,000 from Dunlop to vote in favor of rezoning the Carrickmines lands.

Dunlop ran a thriving lobbying business until he dramatically changed evidence to the tribunal in 2000.

Those named in the charge sheets as having been bribed by Frank Dunlop include former senators Liam Cosgrave of Fine Gael and Don Lydon of Fianna Fail.

Dunlop, government press secretary from 1977 to 1982 and a former RTE journalist, was freed on bail of €100 and left the court holding hands with his wife Sheila.