Lawlor plans to visit Iraq in bid for contracts

Former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor plans to travel to Iraq shortly to bid for lucrative contracts to rebuild the country.

Mr Lawlor, who has served three terms in prison for failing to co-operate with the Flood tribunal, says he hopes to put his knowledge of the country to good use by acting as an intermediary for companies seeking business contracts there.

He visited the country on a number of occasions with parliamentary delegations during the 1980s and served as a director of a company owned by Mr Larry Goodman, who had huge contracts to supply beef to the country.

Mr Lawlor said he had already exchanged e-mails with various business contacts in Iraq, and some who had left the country for Jordan. While he was waiting for the situation to stabilise, he believed there was a wide range of opportunities for Irish companies in Iraq.

He said he was particularly interested in the areas of refrigeration and food processing.

Since his release from jail last year, Mr Lawlor has travelled frequently to the Czech Republic, where he is involved in a number of construction ventures. Meanwhile, judgments totalling almost €850,000 have been registered against his home in Lucan, Co Dublin.

The Beef tribunal heard evidence that Mr Lawlor travelled to Iraq on behalf of the Goodman organisation in 1989, but allowed Iraqi officials to believe he was a representative of the government.

However, Mr Lawlor yesterday said he was not involved in promoting Irish beef. He said the Irish embassy in Baghdad had asked him to help some textile companies recoup money that was owed to them. He also helped to advance a hospital project managed by an Irish company, PARC.

Mr Lawlor recalled meeting the deputy prime minister of the deposed regime, Tariq Aziz, who is now in US custody. He also recalled meeting a former minister for health who had trained in the Rotunda hospital in Dublin.

"Later he was executed for suggesting that Saddam step down during the Iran-Iraq war," he said.

Asked about his position on the recent war, Mr Lawlor said he'd known for a long time that the regime needed to be changed.

Its brutality was "horrific" but he doubted whether it would have been possible to change it from within.