Mr Liam Lawlor TD announced yesterday that he was resigning from the Oireachtas Members' Interests Committee, to widespread relief within Fianna Fail and Government circles. The committee is investigating whether Mr Denis Foley TD breached the Ethics in Public Office Act.
Mr Lawlor has been under considerable pressure from within Fianna Fail following revelations at the Flood tribunal which linked him to payments made by Mr Frank Dunlop, the political lobbyist.
In a letter to Mr Tony Killeen, chairman of the Members' Interests Committee, the Dublin West TD said that "time commitments" prevented him from continuing on the committee. However, he later accepted that the fall-out from the Dunlop revelations had influenced his decision, because the committee "didn't need any controversy associated with it".
A senior Fianna Fail source said the party was glad Mr Lawlor had decided to step down, since that was the "only appropriate response" open to him.
The Fianna Fail Committee on Standards in Public Life met yesterday as part of the process of investigating the decision to rezone the Quarryvale site in west Dublin.
All Fianna Fail members of Dublin County Council who were involved in voting decisions on the site - including Mr Lawlor - will be interviewed by the committee in the coming weeks.
Party officials have interviewed Mr Lawlor on two previous occasions about his involvement in planning issues in Dublin. His political career has been dogged by controversy arising from planning decisions.
This is the second occasion on which Mr Lawlor has had to step down from an Oireachtas committee in controversial circumstances. In 1989 he resigned as chairman of the Committee on Semi-State Companies due to his links with Food Industries, a company in which Mr Larry Goodman had a majority stake.