Ahern to face Dáil grilling over casino controversy

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.

In recent days, Mr Ahern has denied that he gave the National Lottery permission to enter into talks with the Manchester businessman who was seeking to build the casino.

The claim came from former An Post chief executive John Hynes, who was also chairman of the National Lottery.

Mr Ahern, who was Minister for Finance at the time, publicly opposed the casino project.

The controversy comes on top of Mr Ahern's latest woes at the Mahon Tribunal, where Padraic O'Connor of NCB Stockbrokers has recently given evidence that conflicts with that put forward by the Taoiseach and his former fundraiser, Des Richardson.

Mr Ahern and Mr Richardson say Mr O'Connor gave €5,000 as part of the controversial "dig-out" arranged for the Taoiseach in the early 1990s.

However, Mr O'Connor says the money was handed over for Mr Ahern's constituency operation and was not supposed to be a personal donation.

He has also denied that he was a personal friend of the Taoiseach, as claimed by Mr Ahern when the dig-out controversy was made public last year.