Evidence of offshore accounts and how Mr Burke got his house emerged after his relationship with Brennan & McGowan was investigated, writes Christine Newman
When Mr Ray Burke bought Briargate from Oakpark Developments Ltd in the early 1970s, there was no signed contract entered into by the parties and there was no record of any payment made to the builders. The tribunal concluded that the probable explanation lay in the fact that Mr Burke and the directors of Oakpark, Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Jack Foley, had reached an agreement under which he would receive the property for a consideration which was less than open market value.
"The tribunal is satisfied that Mr Burke, Mr Brennan and Mr Foley have not given a truthful account of how Mr Burke came to acquire this property," the report states.
The tribunal believed the probable explanation for their failure to do so was the fact that the benefit thereby provided to Mr Burke would not withstand scrutiny.
The relationship between Mr Burke and Mr Brennan and another of Mr Brennan's business partners, Mr Joseph McGowan, emerged in tribunal evidence of other transactions. Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan, both from Co Mayo, were known to Mr Burke from the 1960s. They were friends of Mr Burke's father, P.J. Burke TD.
The Brennan and McGowan business relationship began as a partnership in 1965. Their companies included Grange Developments Ltd and Kilnamanagh Estates Ltd. Mr Brennan also had building companies in which Mr McGowan had no identifiable beneficial interest including a company called Oakland Developments Ltd (Oakpark), incorporated in 1970.
Oakpark's core business was high-density housing estates in the Swords area. It did not build individual houses, with one notable exception, a substantial detached house standing on one acre at Malahide Road, Swords, Co Dublin, which was built in 1972 and which was subsequently named Briargate by its first owner, Mr Burke.
From 1968, Mr Burke was conducting an auctioneering and estate agency business in Swords through a company called P.J. Burke (Sales) Ltd. This company acted as the sales agent for houses built by Brennan and McGowan connected companies.
In 1974, Mr Burke's relationship with Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan was the subject of an article written by Joe McAnthony, a journalist with the Sunday Independent. The article referred to a document sent to the Companies Office with the returns for Dublin Airport Industrial Estates Ltd, a company connected with Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan. The document contained a reference: "Ray Burke - planning - £15,000".
As Mr Burke was at that time a county councillor and a new member of the Dáil, the article attracted widespread attention. A Garda investigation followed and at its conclusion did not recommend prosecution of any individual.
Mr Burke gave evidence in July 1999 about the source of funds lodged to a bank account in Jersey in the name of a Jersey-registered company called Caviar Ltd, which was his. He said the lodgments were the proceeds of political fund-raising activity carried out in Britain by his political supporters previously identified to the tribunal as Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan.
Evidence by Mr McGowan, supported by Mr Brennan, was that fund-raising events from the 1970s had taken place to coincide with horse-racing events in Britain in which contributions were raised by Mr Burke/Fianna Fáil. Funds estimated to have been raised during that period were from £110,000 to £130,000 sterling.
Mr Burke had received £50,000 sterling in December 1982 from a company called Kalabraki Ltd at AIB Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd. There was also a payment of £35,000 sterling to the account of Caviar Ltd in April 1984 and another of £60,000 sterling in November that year. Another payment of £15,000 was made to the account in April 1985.
The tribunal's inquiries established that the account of events and transactions could not be true. The tribunal said the Caviar file contained references to a company called Canio Ltd.
Mr Justice Flood said on March 12th, 2001, Mr Burke wrote a letter to him in which he effectively retracted substantial parts of his evidence to the tribunal concerning the source of the funds lodged to his offshore account. It transpired that Canio Ltd was two-thirds owned by Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan. They now retracted a substantial portion of their evidence. It was also acknowledged that Kalabraki was a company wholly owned by Mr Brennan and that its funds were paid to Mr Burke in December 1982.
The tribunal found the sums made were corrupt payments probably made to Mr Burke by either Mr Brennan and his associates, Mr McGowan and, in an amount of £10,000 as part of the £60,000 sterling, by Mr John Finnegan. This evidence led the tribunal to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the purchase of Mr Burke's house.
Documentation from the Revenue Commissioners, which recorded the dealings of Oakpark between 1971 and 1978, did not reveal any record of any monies having been paid by Mr Burke to Oakpark.
The tribunal also concluded that while there were substantial payments to Mr Burke by Brennan & McGowan companies through P.J. Burke (Sales) Ltd, there was no evidence to establish that they were made for a corrupt purpose.