Ahern to get report on payments soon

Fianna Fail's committee of inquiry into payments to politicians will meet in Dublin today to work on a draft report which is …

Fianna Fail's committee of inquiry into payments to politicians will meet in Dublin today to work on a draft report which is likely to be submitted to the Taoiseach within a week.

The committee, which has interviewed councillors and former councillors over the past fortnight, will detail payments politicians say they received from builders, developers and their agents since 1985. The committee has also examined the voting records of these councillors and questioned them about possible links between payments and their votes.

Much attention will focus on the committee's treatment of Mr Liam Lawlor, said by Mr Frank Dunlop to have received a cash payment of £40,000 from him in 1991, and a further £8,500 around the same time. Mr Lawlor has strongly denied to the committee that he received any £40,000 cash payment, but has told the committee he received separate consultancy fees later in the 1990s amounting to close to £40,000.

Mr Lawlor said he would provide further documentation, although the committee is understood not to have received this by yesterday afternoon.