Government withdraws amendment to tribunal terms

The Government has withdrawn its controversial amendment to the terms of reference of the Dublin planning tribunal. The climbdown, in the early hours of yesterday morning, has paved the way for the Dail to hold a four-hour debate on the setting up of the new tribunal. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, will be at the formal launch of the Northern peace talks on the same day, next Tuesday.

It is understood that Labour and Democratic Left have agreed, in principle, to the latest draft of the terms but Fine Gael will make its position known on Monday.

The opposition parties had argued that the Government's amendment would raise the standard of proof required in the investigation into the £30,000 donation to Mr Burke. The Government denied that this was the motive behind the amendment.

The Cabinet is expected to consider the appointment of a judge to chair the new tribunal at its meeting on Tuesday.

The Taoiseach last night expressed confidence that the chairman of the new planning tribunal would reschedule hearings involving Mr Burke, if necessary, to avoid clashes with the NI talks.

Responding to a query about a comment by a Minister of State, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, that it was "regrettable" the tribunal and the Northern talks clashed, Mr Ahern said it would be wrong to interpret Mr O Cuiv's comments as divisive.

"All Minister O Cuiv was speaking about was the importance of the peace process and how difficult it was going to be and anything else is a distraction from that - it would be wrong to put any other interpretation on it," he said.