Senator Don Lydon has admitted giving inaccurate information to the Fianna Fáil inquiry into payments to politicians three years ago.
As reported in The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Lydon failed to disclose to the inquiry a £2,500 payment he received from Monarch Properties in 1992. He also failed to disclose a £5,000 contribution from an unnamed property developer in the same year. Mr Lydon proposed a motion to rezone lands owned by the developer around this time.
He also received a second cheque for £5,000 from an unnamed friend in 1992, whom he described yesterday as "a well-known person in business". It is not clear whether this payment would have come under the terms of reference of the inquiry, which related to payments from "Frank Dunlop and/or developers".
Mr Lydon said he had told the inquiry what he remembered at the time. He had no financial records and had only pieced it together over time. Asked why he had not disclosed the £5,000 payments, he said the party inquiry was only concerned with three matters: Quarryvale, Cherrywood and Frank Dunlop/Paisley Park.
The minutes of Mr Lydon's interview with the team that carried out the inquiry appear to show that the largest contribution he said he got was £1,000, but Mr Lydon said this related only to Cherrywood.
In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Lydon said he got £420 from Mr Dunlop in 1999. In fact, he had overestimated this, as he received only £250.
All three politicians who have so far appeared at the tribunal have admitted giving incorrect information to their party inquiries. The former Fine Gael senator, Mr Liam Cosgrave, failed to disclose some donations and underestimated others before his party inquiry in 2000 and is facing possible disciplinary action.
A Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Tony Fox, also underestimated the contributions he received, also from Monarch Properties, but the party says it has no plans to take disciplinary proceedings.