Fianna Fail has no plans to reopen its inquiry into payments to politicians to look at contributions to Cork politicians despite the revelations that the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and Mr Batt O'Keeffe TD received election donations from property developer Mr Owen O'Callaghan.
Mr Martin and Deputy O'Keeffe, who both represent the Cork South Central constituency, each spoke briefly with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, about the donations yesterday. They explained the contributions were towards election expenses.
Senior party sources said last night the matter would not be the subject of a further inquiry by the party. "We have finished with our inquiry and that is the end of it," said a source.
Mr O'Keeffe said he reiterated to the Taoiseach informally yesterday that the once-off £10,000 he received from Mr O'Callaghan for his 1992 general election campaign was a political donation.
Mr Martin confirmed yesterday that he solicited donations totalling £6,500 from Mr O'Callaghan over four general and local elections since 1989. This is the first time there has been a link with Mr O'Callaghan and a serving Cabinet member.
The Minister described the donations as political contributions, which every politician received at the time. Mr Martin said he was not compromised in any way by the donations, which were used to fund election literature.
The Minister and Deputy O'Keeffe said they had not informed the party committee investigating payments to politicians as that inquiry related to activities in Dublin. They said they did not reveal details of the donations to the Flood tribunal as its circular to TDs for information on payments related to planning matters in Dublin.
Deputy O'Keeffe told The Irish Times he was handed a cheque for £10,000 in an envelope by Mr O'Callaghan in a hotel or a pub in Douglas in Cork in the weeks before the 1992 general election. He was among a number of people Deputy O'Keeffe had written to seeking political donations.
The TD said Mr O'Callaghan never asked him for any favour. The third Fianna Fail TD in Cork South Central, Mr John Dennehy, told The Irish Times last night he never received any donations from Mr O'Callaghan.
While he refused to comment further, supporters of Mr Dennehy said yesterday they were not happy to learn of the huge financial advantage enjoyed by Deputy O'Keeffe in 1992. Mr Dennehy lost his seat in that election to Mr O'Keeffe.
A spokesman for Mr O'Callagh an said last night the property developer had given money to a total of eight politicians. These were Mr Martin, Deputy O'Keeffe and the MEP, Mr Brian Crowley, in Cork and Mr Liam Lawlor, Mr G.V. Wright, Mr Colm McGrath, Mr John O'Halloran and Mr Sean Gilbride in Dublin.
In total, the spokesman said, Mr O'Callaghan gave £60,000 to Dublin politicians, £26,500 to the Cork-based politicians and £90,000 to the Fianna Fail party. £80,000 of this was given to the party to defray the party's national debt.
In a statement yesterday Mr O'Callaghan said all the payments were now in the public domain apart from a few contributions to raffles, race nights and other events which would add up to £2,000 or £3,000 over 11 years.