Dublin - A debate on a government motion of confidence in Ireland's prime minister, Bertie Ahern, was underway in the Irish parliament Wednesday, Ireland's national broadcaster reported. The motion is the result of the opposition's dissatisfaction with Ahern's explanations to a tribunal investigating corruption in allocating planning permits.
The Mahon tribunal is probing unexplained cash lodgements Ahern made in the mid-1990s, totalling more than 120,000 British pounds (243,860 dollars).
Opposition Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who put in the motion said that Ahern had been wrong to accept large sums of money and that he had not co-operated fully with the tribunal and that he had not told the truth to the Irish people, RTE reported.
Ireland's parliament, the Dail, which returned after the summer recess Wednesday, was told by Ahern that he had "totally and absolutely co-operated with the Mahon Tribunal in every possible way."
Ahern has spent a total of 17 hours over four days in the witness box at the tribunal.
