Lawlor to assess his chance of election as Independent

Mr Liam Lawlor is expected to announce by the end of this week whether he will stand as an Independent candidate in the general election.

Mr Lawlor is due to be released from Mountjoy jail at noon tomorrow, having served a one-month sentence for failing to co-operate with the Flood tribunal. "He'd love to run, but he has to look at the numbers first. He might do a bit of telephone polling before making a final decision," a source close to the jailed TD said last night. A recent opinion gave Mr Lawlor just 3 per cent of votes in Dublin Mid-West, giving him no realistic chance of election.

The TD has spent much of his time in jail preparing documents for the tribunal. He must give the tribunal all the information he has on his financial affairs by April 9th; otherwise he could face a renewed threat of imprisonment.

He is also assembling documents relating to his sons' bank accounts, and a full list of all documents he once had in his possession but says he no longer has.

From jail Mr Lawlor has used a communications room in the basement of Mountjoy for lengthy telephone discussions with his lawyers. Under prison regulations he was not allowed to use a computer, although his legal team could ask for permission to bring in a computer during consultations.

As a contempt of court prisoner, he was allowed one 15-minute visit a day. As with other prisoners, given prior approval he could have as many phone calls or visits with his legal team as were deemed necessary.

The former Fianna Fáil TD has now spent a total of six weeks in jail for failing to provide the tribunal with the information it requires. Before this latest 28-day sentence, he served one week in January 2001 and another week last January. He has also been fined a total of almost €32,000.

Six weeks of Mr Lawlor's three-month sentence has not been imposed. He has been housed for the past month in a single cell in the basement of B-wing, virtually all of it on his own, sources said, but he has had access to television, radio and newspapers.

With the tribunal unlikely to hold hearings again until after the general election, there is no prospect that Mr Lawlor will be called to give evidence in the immediate future.