At the Flood Tribunal, Joseph Murphy Junior has denied that he misled Fianna Fail Minister Dermot Ahern about payments to Ray Burke by JMSE. Today Mr Murphy told the Tribunal he acted in good faith when he initially told Mr Ahern that no payments had been made. However he admitted that immediately after his second meeting with Mr Ahern in 1997, he discovered that a political contribution may have been made. Mr Murphy denied allegations that he failed to correct the record with Minister Ahern. He also denied that he had attempted to embarrass and discredit the Minister in his evidence to the tribunal.
Today, Joseph Murphy Junior denied that he engaged in a deliberate "wait and see" strategy to avoid association with payments to Ray Burke. During cross examination, Mr Murphy was asked why the Murphy group waited until the start of the tribunal to say that James Gogarty was acting on a frolic of his own in making the payment of £30,000 to the politician. Mr Murphy said that in 1997 they were more concerned with protecting the good name of the company against allegations of offering planning bribes. He said several letters had been issued to newspapers at the time but they did not feel obliged to make a public statement.
The Tribunal also heard how Joseph Murphy continued his investigations into the Burke payments immediately after assuring Dermot Ahern for the second time that the payment did not take place. Mr Murphy said he met Dermot Ahern for the second time on the first of July 1997 but after that meeting he was told by a former company accountant that there may have been some sort of political donation. He said the reason he did not contact Mr Ahern immediately was because he was tied up with personal and family problems. And in any case Ray Burke had made a public statement in early August admitting receiving money from JMSE. Mr Murphy agreed that he owed Dermot Ahern an explanation and said he gave that explanation in September during a telephone conversation.
