Ray Burke

Raphael Patrick "Ray" Burke ( _ga. Rae de Búrca [ [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0480/D.0480.199706260005.html Dáil Éireann - Volume 480] – 26 June 1997.] ; born 30 September 1943) in Dublin, Ireland. A now retired politician with Fianna Fáil party in Dublin. He is a former government minister who was convicted and jailed on charges arising from corruption in office. Burke was also highly influential in decisions made by Dublin Corporation, at local government level in Dublin City.

Early & political life

Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland, educated at O'Connell Schools and became an auctioneer. Burke's political career commenced when he was elected to Dublin County Council in 1967. He was Chairman of the Council between 1985 and 1987.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1973 general election for the Dublin County North constituency, following in the footsteps of his father Patrick J. Burke, a former hospital official, who was affectionately known as "Bishop Burke". The "Bishop" was first elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) in May 1944 and served until 1973 when he retired and his son succeeded him. He held his seat in the same constituency and in its successor Dublin North until his resignation almost twenty-five years later.

After Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election, Burke was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce. He supported George Colley in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest of 1979 but was still retained in his government position by the new Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. In October 1980 he was appointed Minister for the Environment, a position he held until June 1981, and again in the short-lived Fianna Fáil government of 1982. When Fianna Fáil returned to power at the 1987 general election, he served as Minister for Energy until 1988, when he was appointed Minister for Industry and Commerce and Communications.

Following the formation of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats Coalition in 1989 he became Minister for Justice and Minister for Communications, a rather unusual combination of portfolios which would later pose questions of improper payments from the now defunct Century Radio. When Albert Reynolds came to power in 1992, he did not re-appoint Burke to the Cabinet. Fianna Fáil was back in power at the 1997 general election and Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by new Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Allegations, Tribunal, Corruption, Tax Avoidance and Jail

Within months, allegations resurfaced that he had received £80,000 from a property developer regarding the former Dublin County Council. Burke denied the allegations but resigned from the Cabinet and from the Dáil after just four months in office. This allegation lead to the setting up of the Planning Tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Feargus Flood. In an interim report of the subsequent Flood Tribunal [http://www.flood-tribunal.ie/images/Report.pdf] he was unambiguously judged by Flood to be "corrupt".

When Burke was re-elected in 1989, he made it clear in interviews that he believed that the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ was biased against him and Fianna Fáil in its election coverage, and several RTÉ employees reported that while off-air at RTÉ’s election coverage, he remarked "I'm going to fucking screw RTÉ". After the election, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, but retained the Communications brief, two portfolios which had never before (or since) been combined in the same ministry.

Burke was responsible for controversial legislation, severely limiting RTÉ’s ability to collect advertising revenue, and establishing a series of local radio stations, and one independent national radio station, Century Radio. RTÉ were ordered to provide a national transmission service for Century Radio at a price that RTÉ complained was far below the economic cost of providing such a service. For example, they were required by the service level agreement to have engineers on standby covering the entire country 24 hours a day, however the final payment for the entire transmission service was roughly equal to the salary for just one engineer.

Nevertheless, Century Radio failed to gain significant audience share and closed in 1991. An interim report of the Flood Tribunal found as fact that the backers of Century Radio had paid large bribes to Burke to secure favourable ministerial decisions. One of the local stations established was 98FM and in 2006 its owner, Irish businessman Denis O'Brien won a record €750,000 damages from the Irish Daily Mirror which had claimed that O'Brien had paid a bribe of IR£30,000 to Burke to secure a licence for the station. [ [http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10008203.shtml Finfacts 23 November 2006] ]

Protesters against the controversial Corrib Gas Field terminal, in particular Shell to Sea have commented that the deal made by Burke which exempted the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from paying any royalties for the gas extracted had the hallmarks of a corrupt decision. [ [http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=39 Shell to Sea website] ]

During Burke's relatively brief tenure of the Foreign Affairs ministry, Diana, Princess of Wales died, and the Republic of Ireland flew its flag at half-mast on all official buildings.

There were also allegations that Ray Burke received payments from a company called "Rennicks Ltd", the details of which were published in The Irish Times in June 1997 immediately after the general election. If the article written by Geraldine Kennedy was published before the election, it is doubtful if the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition would have gained power. Rennicks is a company associated with Tony O'Reilly. The day prior to the general election O'Reilly's Irish Independent newspaper ran a front page editorial against the Fine Gael–Labour Party Coalition Government entitled "Pay Back Time", with a view towards influencing the electorate to vote in favour of Fianna Fáil. The publishing of the editorial broke a long standing moratorium that all coverage of the election ceases a day ahead of the poll. The Flood Tribunal, and subsequent Mahon Tribunal, have yet to deal with "Rennicks Payment" issue. The question of whether the Mahon Tribunal can now investigate the "Rennicks Payment" has now come before the Irish Courts (Sept 2005) by way of an application for a full hearing into whether the Mahon Tribunal can investigate the alleged Fitzwilton-Rennicks payment to Ray Burke, the High Court decided that a full hearing will take place, the High Court is expected to deliver a reserved judgement in early 2007.

In July 2004, he pleaded guilty to making false tax returns. The charge arose from his failure to declare for tax purposes the bribes that he had received from the backers of Century Radio, so the conviction meant that the jury accepted that, beyond all reasonable doubt, he had received the bribes, although he has never been charged with corruption over the affair.

After a period on bail, on 24 January 2005 he was sentenced to 6 months in jail for these offences, making him one of the most senior politicians in the history of Ireland to serve time in jail. He was released in June 2005 after four and a half months, earning a 25% remission of sentence because of good behaviour. He served his time in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.

Burke has maintained a relatively low profile since completing his prison sentence but attended the June 2006 state funeral of Charles Haughey, his political patron and former Fianna Fáil party leader. Several former associates of Ray Burke, from his days as a member of Dublin Corporation (the 'Corpo'), continue to be the subjects of tribunals of inquiry set up to investigate irregularities in the planning process in Dublin.

ee also

*Tribunal of Inquiry Into Certain Planning Matters and Payments

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.flood-tribunal.ie/ The Flood Tribunal]
* [http://www.flood-tribunal.ie/images/Report.pdf Flood Tribunal Report on Ray Burke]

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