THE tribunal to investigate planning in north Co Dublin may be able to deal with the £30,000 contribution to the Minister for Foreign Affairs within three months, the Taoiseach said.

During heated exchanges with the opposition, Mr Ahern rejected their renewed demand that the payment to Mr Burke be included in the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal, and he strongly defended the Government's decision to opt for a separate tribunal.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said he did not regard what Mr Ahern was proposing as meeting the situation. Mr Ahern, he added, was wrong when he had claimed that it was not possible to amend the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal to include the £30,000 payment to Mr Burke.

"I believe that the suggestion by the Taoiseach that we should have some other inquiry into all sorts of planning matters in north Co Dublin is simply a smokescreen.

"We have no evidence, and I challenged the Taoiseach personally when I met him in his office to produce evidence of payments to any other politician.

"There is no evidence in the public domain of payments to any other politician. And yet the Taoiseach wants some wandering inquiry that will go on for months and months, while Mr Burke continues as Minister for Foreign Affairs."

The proposed tribunal, said Mr Bruton, was simply a "delaying tactic."

Mr Bruton said that Fianna Fail was in control of Dublin County Council in 1989. "The letter from Mr Michael Bailey said that he wanted a material contravention of the plan, something that was to be delivered within two years, i.e., within the period in which Fianna Fail was still in control of the council.

"That letter was sent to Mr James Gogarty three days before Mr Gogarty went to see Mr Burke and handed over the money."

Mr Bruton said he believed that the coincidence of events, and the short term envisaged for the material contravention, was a very focused series of events that needed to be independently investigated.

Mr Ahern said he totally objected to the way Mr Bruton had very conveniently misrepresented everything that he had said.

"You know and I know, without allegations, that people are saying there could be six or seven other issues. I am not going to get anyone to inquire into them, but if information transpires that there is in the sifting process those issues, then they can deal with them . . . In fact, it is our belief that this whole matter can be dealt with in three months."

Amid uproar, Mr Bruton challenged the Taoiseach to say what the other six or seven issues were. "What are they? Do not use rumours."

The Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring, said that the situation had changed dramatically since the previous debate in the House on the Moriarty tribunal, with the chairman of the Progressive Democrats calling on Mr Burke to stand aside.

"I think the Taoiseach is ill-advised if he is convinced he cannot put the matters now under discussion into the existing tribunal. There is a mechanism for so doing with the agreement of the chairman."

He said that the payment of the £30,000 was a fact, as were the letter and the meeting. If there were other matters relating to other parties, the Taoiseach owed it to the House to put them on the record.

"Otherwise, the innuendo, the smears and the destruction of politics is going to continue."

Mr Ahern said he had no information whatsoever, and no evidence of anybody guilty of anything, but he was sick and tired of hearing "that there is this story and that story and the other story." There was plenty of hearsay.

Mr Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West) said he understood there was no reference to Mr Burke in the terms of reference of the tribunal, although the only actual information available concerned him.

"There ought to be explicit mention of the case of the Minister for Foreign Affairs without being judgmental in any way."

Earlier, there were demands from the opposition parties for an emergency debate on the need to broaden the terms of reference of the Moriarty tribunal to include the payment to Mr Burke.

The leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, stressed the need for the Government to review Mr Burke's position in the light of Mr Ahern's announcement of a tribunal into planning and related matters in north Dublin.

Given that Mr Burke was likely to be a central figure in the tribunal, there was a need for the Government to make arrangements to designate the functions of the Minister to another member of the Government pending the outcome of the tribunal, he said.

When the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, said he could not grant the opposition parties leave to move their motions seeking an emergency debate, the Fine Gael chief whip, Mr Sean Barrett, asked him if there was any other matter he could think of that needed urgent consideration.

"If you do, I'll eat my hat."

If the House was seen to be burying the problem, the public would begin to see the Dail as irrelevant, said Mr Barrett. In view of the ongoing revelations, it was only fair that an independent tribunal of inquiry should investigate the matter at a preliminary stage.

"If there is nothing in it, let us forget about it. If there is, then let us deal with the matter."

Mr Pattison said it was his responsibility as Ceann Comhairle to apply the standing orders as laid down by the House.

The Labour spokesman on the environment, Mr Brendan Howlin, said he believed that there was probably a majority in the House, if it was tested, to support the inclusion of the matter in the Moriarty tribunal.

"It is very much in the interest of politics, and in the interest of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, so that he can get on with the very important work he has to do in the national interest without distraction."

Mr Rabbitte said that Mr Ahern had breached his own precedent by refusing to consult with the opposition on the terms of reference of the proposed tribunal.

"It is absolutely bewildering as to why a separate tribunal is necessary, when only a couple of weeks ago this House divided on a motion proposed by my party which would have included this matter in the preliminary stages of the Moriarty tribunal."

Mr Ahern said that when the matter first surfaced some months ago he had spoken to Mr Burke. "I checked it with him, got lines of communication which, in so far as I could, were independently checked. I was quite satisfied with those issues."

Mr Burke, he added, had made a full statement to the House and answered questions.

The Taoiseach added that he had disagreed with the call for a tribunal at that time. The McCracken tribunal had found Mr Michael Lowry and Mr Charles Haughey guilty of some wrongdoing, and it was appropriate that the Moriarty tribunal should deal comprehensively with the issues involved.

The issue relating to Mr Burke was different. There was no substance, as yet, in spite of all that was being said. "It is obvious to me that at least one of the individuals concerned has a huge amount of files . . . It has been suggested to me that they may not be all about the lands, they might be about other issues."

It would be totally unfair to refer the contribution to Mr Burke to the Moriarty tribunal. Anyway, it was not possible to amend the terms of reference of a tribunal once it had been set up.

So it was the Government's decision to set up another tribunal which would deal comprehensively with planning matters and issues relating to Mr Burke in that regard. "There is no stonewalling."

What he would not do, he added, was put one issue relating to £30,000 in a tribunal and then find afterwards that "somebody drops another bit of paper into somebody's hands," and hear why it should be investigated.

Mr Bruton said the Taoiseach was attempting to conceal embarrassing facts behind "a fog of rumours to which there is no substance and which he has not substantiated." His approach appeared to be a device to keep his Government together rather than deal with the restoration of faith in Irish politics.

Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) said he agreed that the "rezoning coalition of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael," which had acted effectively and ruthlessly not only in north Dublin but in west Dublin, should be investigated.

Mr John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said he did not necessarily disagree that there was need for a separate tribunal, but he wondered why Mr Burke was not included directly in the terms of reference. "Implicitly, he is involved," replied the Taoiseach.

The opposition challenged a vote on the Order of Business, but the Government won by 73 votes to 66.