Barry gift conflicts with Burke Dail statement

Mr Ray Burke was minister for industry, commerce and communications when he received three substantial donations totalling £105,000 during the run-up to the elections of June 1989.

Thanks to yesterday's evidence, we now know the identity of Mr Burke's third and largest donor. Mr Oliver Barry, a businessman with interests in concert promotion, building and radio, gave the Fianna Fail minister £35,000 on May 30th, 1989.

Within a week, Mr Burke picked up a cheque for £30,000 from Rennicks Manufacturing, acting on behalf of its parent company, Fitzwilton. Then, a few days later, he received £20,000 in cash and a cheque for £10,000 from Mr James Gogarty of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering.

Following the election on June 15th, Mr Burke was returned to the Cabinet as minister for justice and communications. He had overall responsibility for radio in Ireland. He set up the Independent Radio and Television Commission, which allocated a number of new radio licences.

Mr Barry is a former director of Century Communications, the successful bidder for the licence for a new national radio service.

The station started in September 1989 but fared badly and was closed down in November 1991.

The former chief executive of the Murphy group, Mr Liam Conroy, was involved with a consortium which obtained one of the licences for Dublin. Capital Radio was launched on July 20th, 1989. It is now known as FM104.

Yesterday's evidence contradicts Mr Burke's Dail statement of September 1997 when he claimed £30,000 was the "largest contribution" he had received during an election campaign.

At the time, only the Murphy payment was known, and it was generally assumed he had received one payment of £30,000. He was accused subsequently of misleading the Dail for not revealing that he had in fact received two payments for this amount, one from the Murphy group and another from Rennicks Manufacturing. In earlier evidence to the tribunal, he explained this by saying that he initially thought he had received only £30,000 from the donor (Mr Barry).

In total, Mr Burke received donations of £117,000 in the three weeks before the 1989 election. Of this sum, £10,000 is known for certain to have been remitted to Fianna Fail headquarters.