At the Flood Tribunal Ray Burke has refused to answer further questions on how he availed of the tax amnesty. Tribunal lawyers have asked how he declared over £5,000 as income in the amnesty if he claims that all his money was through political donations. Mr Burke said that he made an estimate of what tax may have owed because his personal and political finances were intermingled. His barrister Aidan Walsh said that to go any further than that in evidence would enter the realm of the Revenue Commissioners. He reminded the Chairman that an under declaration in the tax amnesty carried a mandatory prison sentence.
Earlier, the Tribunal heard that £174,000 from Ray Burke's political fund was lodged to his current account. A further £8,000 was lodged to his wife's current account. The Tribunal has described Mr Burke's current account as a domestic one but Mr Burke insists that his political and private lives were seamless. Mr Justice Flood said that it seemed to him that these funds were used as a form of subvention for the former minister's personal life and he said that he would like an explanation.
In 1989, Ray Burke ran up an overdraft of almost £35,000 on his current account. He cleared this with a lodgement of £37,000 from his political fund and more such lodgements followed. Out of that same account came almost £7000 to buy a family car, £13,500 for a tennis court and later a further £18,500 for a kitchen and other renovations.
Other large sums were withdrawn which the former Minister cannot explain, but he says many would have been for ongoing political expenditure. He says that he thinks £5000 withdrawn in November of 1989 may have been spent on the Fianna Fáil president's dinner, taking a table and giving hospitality. In relation to the money that went into his wife's account he said that all day people would have been coming to his home being entertained with tea and coffee or a drink. His wife would have paid for a portion of that, he said.
Lawyers for the Tribunal have said that the overwhelming majority of payments made out of Ray Burke's current account could not and did not have anything to do with any political activity. The Tribunal has been examining the former Fianna Fáil minister's current account during the late eighties and early nineties. They say that their investigations show that the account was an ordinary domestic one. Ray Burke continues to maintain that this account would also have been used for political expenditures.
Substantial payments were made out of this account for home improvements, a car, and visa bills. There were also payments for holidays, home heating and phone bills. Tribunal lawyers acknowledge that there is evidence of some political payments coming out of this current account. For example, one payment of £26 to the Fianna Fáil party.
