Liam Cosgrave fails to declare political donation

Former Fine Gael TD and senator Liam Cosgrave has admitted failing to properly declare a political donation.

Former Fine Gael TD and senator Liam Cosgrave has admitted failing to properly declare a political donation.

He pleaded guilty before Dublin Circuit Court today to making a false or misleading report of a political donation in excess of £500 or donations from the same person with an aggregate value of £500 between May 15th and December 31st 1997.

The former leas-cathaoirleach of the Seanad, with an address at Merrion Park, Blackrock, Co Dubli,n was remanded on bail for sentencing next February.

Mr Cosgrave is son of former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and a grandson of William T. Cosgrave the first "prime minister" of the Irish Free State - then known as President of the Executive Council.

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Mr Cosgrave resigned from Fine Gael - the party led by his father and grandfather - in 2003 after giving evidence to the Flood Tribunal which conflicted with the account he gave to an internal party inquiry three years earlier.

He was before the tribunal into alleged planning irregularities in relation to over IR£7,000 he admitted receiving from former lobbyist Frank Dunlop while a member of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in the 1990s.