It has emerged that one of the key witnesses to the Flood Tribunal, Joseph Murphy senior, wants to give his evidence in Jersey. The Murphy Group legal team has indicated that problems with Mr Murphy senior's health will prevent him travelling to Dublin to appear before the Tribunal. Michael Cush said that Mr. Murphy Senior is very willing to give evidence before the end of this month and that a formal application will be made next week requesting that his evidence be heard in Jersey, where he resides. Mr. Murphy senior is the former employer of James Gogarty.
The former minister Ray Burke told the Flood Tribunal earlier that he is holding £118,000 in a political fund, which is made up of contributions he received when he was still in politics. Mr. Burke stressed that, now he had retired, he would not benefit personally from the money. The tribunal also heard that Mr Burke lodged £95,000 in an overseas account in 1984. Finishing his direct evidence, he complained about TDs' salaries and said that politicians were forced to rely on constant fundraising. He urged the chairman to make a reference to this in his final report.
On each of his first two days in the witness box, Ray Burke spoke of the existence of a political fund left over from his time in politics. He said that the distribution of it had yet to be decided. Today, he told the tribunal that this fund contains £118,000. He said that he had informed the Taoiseach of its existence, but not how much it contained. He said that he was awaiting professional advice on how it should be distributed, but now that he had retired from politics, he would not benefit from one halfpenny of it.
Mr. Burke also told the tribunal that he opened an overseas account in 1984 with money raised on his behalf in the UK. He made two initial lodgements to the account in Jersey totalling £95,000. The account was closed in 1994 and its contents transferred to an Irish account. Finishing his direct evidence, Mr Burke described TDs’ salaries as so inadequate that fundraising was an unfortunate fact of political life. He said that it left politicians open to allegations like those levelled against him and he urged the Tribunal chairman to consider this in his final report.
