Over half (54%) of those surveyed believe that the recent disclosures that the Taoiseach received loans and gifts from businessmen in 1993 and 1994 totalling 60,000 reflect negatively on the workings of the tribunal into alleged planning corruption and other matters.

Despite the fact that minister of state Noel Treacy admitted, when brought before judge Alan Mahon last week, that he had incorrectly suggested the leak into Ahern's affairs had come from within the tribunal, just over onethird . . . 34% . . . of the electorate believe the tribunal has not been damaged at all by the affair.

Galway East FF TD Treacy had claimed on radio that the source of the leaked story, originally published in the Irish Times, was "well known" and that the source was close to the Mahon tribunal.

Twelve per cent of those polled said they didn't know, or had no opinion, when asked if the tribunal's reputation had been damaged by the recent disclosures. When the Sunday Tribune/ Millward Brown IMS poll is broken down by gender, more men . . . 57% . . . believe that the tribunal has been damaged by the leak to the Irish Times. Fifty-one percent of women were of the same opinion.

There is almost equal agreement across all social strata that the tribunal has been damaged by the revelations, while there is no discernible difference of opinion between Dubliners, urbanites in nonDublin areas and rural dwellers. When the poll results are broken down by age, respondents over 65 reported the strongest opinion (57%) that the tribunal had been damaged by the disclosures, while 51% of 18- to 24-yearolds agreed.

The poll finding comes as figures released in the Dail last week show that, to date, the Mahon tribunal has cost over 58m. According to parliamentary questions tabled by Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe, the anti-corruption probe is the most expensive inquiry yet undertaken by the state. The final cost of the tribunal could be a multiple of this figure, once decisions on third-party costs are finalised.

The tribunal has also said it will ask the High Court to compel Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and its public-affairs correspondent Colm Keena to disclose the source of their information.

Kennedy said the correspondence that the newspaper had received, which formed the basis for the story, had been destroyed to protect the source.

The planning tribunal has taken some notable scalps in its time. It found in its 2002 interim report that former minister Ray Burke received corrupt payments from property developers and other business interests in the 1970s and '80s. Burke received the money from builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan.

He got what amounted to a corrupt payment through the acquisition of his home at Swords. The price of the property did not represent its open market value.

Burke's FF colleague, the late Liam Lawlor, also faced the wrath of the tribunal into planning matters. He was jailed three times for refusing to comply with the work of the tribunal or to disclose all of his relevant documents and financial statements.

Lobbyist Frank Dunlop has told the tribunal that he paid bribes to councillors on about 250 occasions. Dunlop said he made payments to councillors in relation to about 20 particular rezonings in the late 1980s and early '90s.