Ex-TD insists his house was paid for

Mr Ray Burke acquired his house in Swords in a normal commercial transaction for which he paid £22,500, the former politician has told the tribunal.

Mr Burke rejected earlier evidence that he got the house, Briargate, for nothing from a company linked to the builder Mr Tom Brennan.

He said he paid £7,500 for the site by waiving commissions due to him for selling houses on behalf of the company Oak Park Developments. And he insisted that he paid £15,000 from his own money for the house which Oak Park built on the site in 1973.

When it was put to him that there was no documentation to show that he had paid these sums, he replied that there were no records to show that he had not.

The former minister sold Briargate last year - to make way for a shopping centre - for about £3 million.

Oak Park acquired the two-acre site from the estate of Mr James Coleman in March 1972, and secured planning permission to build three houses. However, later that year, the company agreed to sell one of the two fields to Mr Burke, and to build his house there.

Mr Burke got engaged in July that year, and brought his fiancΘe, Ann, out to the field to show her where they would live. They married in November that year.

The planning application for Briargate was submitted by Mr John P. Keenan, Brennan and McGowan's architect, in the name of Forest Homes. Ten years later, Mr Burke appointed Mr Keenan to An Bord Pleanβla.

Yesterday, Mr Burke said he had been delighted that Mr Keenan had been available for appointment to the board. He was a "very efficient" architect.

Asked why the application was submitted in the name of a company, Mr Burke said he "kept his business private". He did not want to leave himself open to objections or delays through his decision to live locally.

Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, pointed out that the details of the sale to Mr Burke had not been put down in writing. Mr Burke had no legal documents and could not prove title until August 1973.

However, Mr Burke insisted that he agreed an "overall package" totalling £22,500 with Oak Park. As an auctioneer, he was selling "hundreds and hundreds" of houses for the company.

"There is such a thing as a word of honour between men, and that's it", he explained.