The financial director of NCB Stockbrokers has said he only discovered during a TV interview last year involving the Taoiseach that money intended for Bertie Ahern's constituency office was a personal donation.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is expected to face a grilling in the Dáil today over the controversy surrounding the casino project mooted for the Phoenix Park in the 1990s.

A former finance director with the NCB stockbrokers has told the Mahon tribunal that he believed a payment from the company to Bertie Ahern was a political donation.

ALLTRACEL Pharmaceuticals founder and chief executive Gerry Brandon is to step down, the first aid product developer said yesterday.