The Tanaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Harney, strengthened her reaction to the contents of the letter published in Magill magazine throughout yesterday. In London late in the afternoon she said the letter would have to be investigated. She stopped short of suggesting, however, that it should be referred to the new tribunal.
"I think that the new revelations are very serious and certainly I think we need to examine options of investigating that planning matter," Ms Harney stated.
She continued: "It is not satisfactory that somebody would write a letter saying that they could procure a majority vote at the county council in return for a 50 per cent shareholding in land. That is unacceptable. If that is the case, that is corruption."
Earlier, Ms Harney had suggested it might be "no bad thing" to have an investigation into decisions made by Dublin Co Council in the late 1980s.
In her first reaction to the letter, she said: "Clearly if somebody was suggesting that they could procure a majority vote in the council in return for a 50 per cent stake in the land, that is something that would concern me, yes."
She was concerned about what she had read, she told journalists after the campaign launch for the Government's presidential candidate, Prof Mary McAleese.