Hundreds of Oireachtas members, past and present, have been asked to provide the Moriarty Tribunal with details of any payments - in excess of £500 - they might have received while in public office. Mr John Davis, solicitor to the tribunal of inquiry into payments to Mr Charles Haughey and Mr Michael Lowry, has written to former and present politicians going back to the early 1980s.
They have been invited to respond by Friday next.
The tribunal, chaired by Mr Justice Michael Moriarty, is seeking information about the payments, other than public remuneration, the elected representatives might have received, either in money or benefit-in-kind. It also wants to procure details of the source of any such payment, including the name and address of the benefactor - "or the identity of the fund" from which the payment was made.
The payment of more than £500 applies not just to the Oireachtas member, past or present, but to "a connected person" as defined in the Ethics in Public Office Act.
The term "connected person" covers a relative; a payment to any person who may be the beneficiary of a trust of which the recipient of the letter is a trustee; a person who may be, or have been, in partnership with the politician; a company which he or she controls alone; or a company which is controlled with other connected persons. It also covers anybody with whom the politician was connected with who may have been involved in securing or exercising control of a company.