Paul Cullen answers some basic questions about the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, which was set up in 1997
So what is this tribunal about?
The Flood tribunal - its official name is the "Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments" - was set up in November 1997 to inquire into the planning history of 726 acres of land in north Dublin. This land was owned by Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering, whose chairman, Mr James Gogarty, made a payment of at least £30,000 to the former Fianna Fáil minister, Mr Ray Burke, in June 1989.
The question arose as to why the money was paid to Mr Burke. The tribunal was established to investigate Mr Gogarty's claim that it was a bribe to help rezone the land and build houses on it. The company says it knew nothing about the payment made by Mr Gogarty. Mr Burke says he understood it to be a political donation.
Is that all there is to it?
Not at all. After further payments to Mr Burke emerged, the remit of the tribunal was widened to allow for the investigation of all suspect payments to politicians and local authority officials. This has really opened the, er, flood-gates, with all sorts of claims and allegations being referred to the tribunal.
For example, Mr Justice Flood and his team spent one year examining Mr Burke's relationship with Century Radio, after it emerged that the co-founder of Century, Mr Oliver Barry, gave £35,000 to the politician in May 1989. This was four months after Century had secured the licence for Ireland's first national commercial radio station. The licence was awarded by the Independent Radio and Television Commission. Mr Burke, who was minister for communications at the time, said he had no part in the decision. Mr Barry said the payment to Burke was a political contribution to a friend, which he hoped would help Fianna Fáil win a second seat in Mr Burke's constituency in Dublin North.
Around this time, in summer 1989, Mr Burke also got £30,000 from Rennicks Manufacturing, but the tribunal has yet to get around to investigating this in public.
Burke knew how to tap people for money. Was there more?
There certainly was. From his earliest days in politics in the late 1960s, Mr Burke received substantial payments from friends in business. His main supporters and friends were builders Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Joe McGowan. At first, acting as an estate agent, he sold houses on their behalf. This netted him £1,000 a month between 1975 and 1982.
When Mr Burke's political career took off and he was made a minister, Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan found new ways to channel money to their friend. As the tribunal discovered, companies linked to the two builders made substantial offshore payments - totalling £125,000 - to Mr Burke between 1982 and 1985.
Mr Burke has told the tribunal that the monies he received were political donations for "Fianna Fáil/Ray Burke". Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan also say they were political contributions. However, Fianna Fáil received very little of the money that came his way.
So the tribunal is all about Ray Burke then?
Not at all. For example, Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan made payments to other prominent figures. It emerged at the tribunal that Mr Brennan made regular payments of a few hundred pounds a week to Mr George Redmond for many years during the 1970s and 1980s. Mr Redmond spent his entire working life in Dublin Corporation, and rose to become assistant Dublin city and county manager by the time he retired in 1989. For years, he was the most knowledgeable and powerful official in planning in the county.
Mr Brennan says the money accrued from successful bets he would place on horses, using his own money, on Mr Redmond's behalf. He estimated the total sum was about £50,000; Mr Redmond said it was £250,000. The tribunal estimated that Mr Redmond accumulated over £1 million in assets during his career, separate from his salary.
Didn't Frank Dunlop claim he was paying money to politicians?
The former government press secretary, Mr Frank Dunlop, appeared at the tribunal briefly in April/May 1999. He made sensational allegations about payments to over 20 politicians in connection with rezoning in Dublin. However, the evidence on this, and particularly in relation to the rezoning of the Quarryvale site in west Dublin (now the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre) won't be heard until later this autumn.
The same applies for Mr Liam Lawlor, who has scrapped with the tribunal for a few years now. Mr Lawlor made a brief appearance in Dublin Castle in December 2000, after which Mr Justice Flood brought contempt proceedings against him in the High Court. The former TD has been jailed on three occasions, for a total of six weeks, for failing to co-operate with the tribunal. He had run up multimillion pound legal bills, has been stopped from disposing of his house - and he hasn't even begun giving evidence to the tribunal.
You mean the tribunal isn't finished?
No, it's only halfway through its work. The tribunal was set up in November 1997 and held its first public hearing in January 1999. Since then, it has sat in public for 327 days and cost €21.5 million. The chairman is now aged 74. This report deals mainly with Mr Ray Burke. Future hearings will centre on the allegations surrounding Mr Frank Dunlop, Mr Liam Lawlor, possibly more of Mr Burke and many others. So most observers believe it has at least another three years to run, even though additional judges have been appointed to sit alongside Mr Justice Flood.
So it's a game of two halves, then? You could say that.