Disgraced Burke can claim pension of up to €70,000 a year

Disgraced former minister Ray Burke will continue to draw an Oireachtas pension of up to €70,000 a year despite his censure for corruption in the Flood tribunal interim report.

As a TD with more than 20 years' service, Mr Burke is entitled to the maximum pension for retired deputies, the equivalent of half the current Leinster House salary, or €34,525 this year.

In addition, Mr Burke is drawing a Ministerial pension, worth €31,070 in 2000, the last year for which figures are available.

The former Fianna Fáil minister has other substantial sources of income, including revenue from investments and interest earned on deposit accounts.

The Flood tribunal estimated that between 1982 and 1997, Mr Burke earned €146,020 in deposit interest on political donations alone.

The inquiry is continuing to investigate Mr Burke's other income sources and assets. Only last November it uncovered three accounts of Mr Burke's, two of them offshore, which he had previously failed to disclose.

The three held funds totalling more than £37,500 in the 1970s, when Mr Burke's declared income ranged between £3,500 and £9,500 a year.

His total wealth is difficult to establish, although the tribunal has been looking at more than £750,000 in payments to the former minister to date.

Last year, Mr Burke sold his home, Briargate, in Swords, north Dublin for almost €3.8 million to make way for a shopping centre. The tribunal interim report said his acquisition of the house in 1973 amounted to "a corrupt payment" from the builder Mr Tom Brennan and his associates.

Mr Burke, who is understood to be on holidays overseas this week, currently lives in Whitehall, north Dublin, in a house registered in his wife's name.

Regardless of the outcome of possible prosecutions, Mr Burke is expected to retain his State-funded pensions. In 1990, the Supreme Court decided that a pension already earned was considered a property right and therefore enjoyed constitutional protection.

Removing a TD's pension would face an additional legal obstacle due to the fact that it is contributory.

The Ethics in Public Offices Act, 1995, does not stipulate any penalty regarding pensions but does provide for a fine of up to £50,000 and/or imprisonment for up to seven years in the case of conviction for corruption on indictment. On summary conviction an offender can be fined up to £1,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 12 months.

Mr Burke may be forced to divert a significant proportion of his funds to pay legal costs arising from his non-co-operation with the tribunal. Last April, the High Court Taxing Master, ruled that former Fianna Fáil TD Mr Liam Lawlor should pay more than €500,000 in legal fees to the tribunal arising from court proceedings in which the parties were involved.