RESUMPTION:THE FORMER taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to be the first witness called when the Mahon tribunal resumes hearings after the summer break.
Mr Ahern is scheduled to give evidence for one and a half days. It is expected he will be questioned about the Quarryvale, now Liffey Valley development in Dublin in the early 1990s.
Mr Ahern has denied receiving any improper payments in relation to the development. The allegation that he might have done so led to the tribunal's inquiries into his personal finances, which in turn brought his political career to a premature end.
Mr Ahern last gave evidence in June, when he finished answering questions concerning his personal finances.
The tribunal, which is currently hearing evidence from the Cork-based developer Owen O'Callaghan, the main force behind the Quarryvale development, will break for the summer on July 31st next.
Mr Ahern is scheduled to go into the witness box on September 15th and 16th when the tribunal resumes public hearings. Mr O'Callaghan will then return to complete his evidence. The tribunal has almost completed its taking of evidence in relation to the Quarryvale module.
It will hear a number of witnesses in order to conclude another module, the Cloghran module, also after the summer break.
The tribunal has put an updated schedule of pending witnesses on its website (www.planningtribunal.ie) that indicates it will complete its hearings by October.
However no dates are assigned for the attendance of Hazel Lawlor, wife of the late Fianna Fáil TD, Liam Lawlor, or her son Niall. They are both due to give evidence as part of the Quarryvale module.
Ms Lawlor is currently awaiting a reserved judgment in a High Court case she has taken against the tribunal.
Former taoiseach Albert Reynolds is also to give evidence concerning the Quarryvale module but he has yet to be assigned a date on the tribunal website. The name of a former constituency secretary of Mr Ahern's, Sandra Cullagh, was on the list of pending witnesses up to yesterday, when her name was dropped.
The Government has said it wants tribunals to let their legal staffs go once their public hearings have come to an end.
