THE MAHON tribunal's public hearings into the finances of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, are set to resume on May 13th.
Mr Ahern travels to the US next week to address a joint sitting of the Houses of Congress and is to resign as Taoiseach on Tuesday, May 6th.
Dominic Dillane, treasurer of the Dublin Central constituency, is to return to the witness box on May 13th, it was disclosed yesterday.
Mr Dillane gave evidence in March when he was questioned about the so-called B/T account from which a payment of £30,000 was made in 1993 to help Mr Ahern's former partner Celia Larkin purchase a house.
Liam Cooper, who helps run Mr Ahern's O'Donovan Rossa cumann in Dublin Central, is due to give evidence the following day, as is the Taoiseach's long-time associate, Joe Burke. Former Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson is to return to give more evidence on May 15th and again on May 20th.
The Taoiseach has been isolated from the list of other pending witnesses on the tribunal's website, though it is not clear why this is so.
Mr Ahern is listed as not appearing before May 21st. Another witness is scheduled to appear on May 22nd, and the remaining witnesses listed are categorised as not due to give evidence before May 27th.
The names of a number of persons who had been listed on the website as due to appear have been dropped from the list. They include a number of solicitors and judges who had an involvement with matters linked to Mr Ahern's purchase of his home from Manchester businessman Micheál Wall in 1997.
David Anderson and Hugh O'Donnell acted as solicitors in the sale after the solicitor who had acted for both Mr Ahern and Mr Wall in relation to dealings with the house died in 1997. Both Mr Anderson and Mr O'Donnell are now District Court judges.
Other solicitors who were expected to be asked about the house sale and related matters are Cathriona Hannigan, Ken Morris and Francis O'Doherty. However, their names have also been dropped from the list on the website. Why this is so is not known.
Mr Wall, who has already given evidence about a briefcase of cash he has said he gave to Mr Ahern in 1994, as part of a deal linked to Mr Ahern renting the house, is still scheduled to give evidence. So too is Michael Collins, who is resident in Australia. He is the only one of the persons whom the tribunal has been told contributed to "dig-outs" for Mr Ahern in the early 1990s who has not yet given evidence.
