German equivalents of a bank draft

would be grateful if anyone can advise me on this.

A bank draft is a common way of paying fees etc. in Ireland. Is it possible to get one from a German bank? What should I ask for?

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Tell us exactly what it is you are trying to do and someone will tell you how to do it. Generally speaking, you just give the bank the account details of wherever it is you are trying to send the money to, but I'm not entirely clear about what it is you want to do.

a bank draft is a non-personal cheque drawn on a bank.

You go into the bank, ask for a draft, pay the amount of the draft plus commission, the bank gives you the draft (a piece of paper saying "pay the bearer x euros), you write in the name of who you want to receive the money, put the draft in an envelope and send it off.

see http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=263&a=654

you can usually cross it so only the named recipient can lodge or cash it.

I usually make payments using uberweisung but the recipient (a state or semi-state body) is requesting a draft.

Does anyone know the German word for this?

Banktratte in German, it appears.

There are three options to solve the puzzle you are giving:
a) according to your description, especially the crossing to make sure only a certain person can cash in, leads me to believe that you are talking about a "Order-Scheck". In order to get one you need to have an account with the bank so, it is not common to pay for it. In my experience it is only handed out to companies and not to private persons but I might be wrong.
what the other side, the recipient of the cheque might be looking for, though, is a cheque that can't bounce (which the order cheque can). This would best be acchieved with a "LZB-Scheck" which only the public Landeszentralbank can issue (though you should be able to get one through your bank but expect several days if not weeks before you have it). Here you pay in the full amount plus fees and the LZB delcares that the cheque is always good for this money.
c) the third option could be a "Sichtwechsel" or demand draft/bill payable on sight. This again requires good standing with your bank and since this is counted as an AVAL-Kredit it is more common nowadays for companies but should be available to private persons. But a demand draft could legally still bounce (even though penalties are rather harsh and thus the risk rather low), therefore I assume your recipient would rather have a LZB-SCheck.

Hope this helps and explains more than it confuses...

Cheerio

Errrm with all this to-ing and fro-ing would it be easier just to do a bank transfer = überweisung?

yes, I usually make payments using uberweisung but the recipient (a state or semi-state body) is requesting a draft.