Ray Burke has told the Flood Tribunal that the decision to introduce independent national radio was not an attack on RTÉ. However, the former Communications Minister earlier said that a strike in RTÉ during which services went off the air and comments by the former Director General, Vincent Finn, about the legislation had played a part in the decision.
Ray Burke was asked to account for the decisions he made as Minister for Communications in 1987. Legislation for independent radio was being drawn up and at a late stage, provision for a national station was added. He told civil servants that the Government had decided to introduce national radio. But there is no record of a formal Government decision on the matter until two weeks after he gave the instruction.
Mr Burke said that a number of factors had contributed to the decision - a strike by RTÉ and a speech by the former RTÉ Director General, Vincent Finn, which was critical of the Government's plans for local radio. He said that the Government decided enough was enough. It would not be dictated to by RTÉ, and it was time for an alternative, he said.
Mr Burke denied telling Oliver Barry about his plans for national radio. A meeting between Oliver Barry, Gay Byrne, and a solicitor about a national licence took place on 6 November that year - 10 days before it was formally put before the Government. Mr Burke said that he had no idea how Mr Barry would have known about it.
Earlier, the Tribunal heard that Mr Burke's bank manager recorded his £100,000 political fund as a personal asset after he had resigned from politics. Ray Burke has said that he could not explain the reference. He claims the money was not for his use once he left politics. The reference was contained in an internal bank document.
It listed over £100,000 in building society accounts among Mr Burke's assets. That was the political fund which Mr Burke said was not for his use once he left politics. Today, he said that he could not explain why his bank manager had listed it as such. He said that he read other documents written by William Moody and he did a good line in fiction.
