A former financial controller of JMSE told the Flood tribunal that the explanation for a £30,000 payment in a funds flow statement prepared by him had nothing to do with the item that preceded it, which was clearly for planning permission.
The £30,000 item - the amount paid to Mr Ray Burke, TD - shared the same heading in the statement as an £80,250 figure immediately above it which referred to levies in respect of planning permission for the Murphy lands at Forest Road, Swords, Mr Des O'Neill SC, counsel for the tribunal, said.
Chartered accountant Mr Tim O'Keeffe, however, insisted that a blank space on the 1989 statement he had prepared alongside the figure of £30,000 meant he had no idea at the time what it related to. "I did not know what the £30,000 was for but I knew it came from JMSE," said Mr O'Keeffe. The £30,000 was simply the repayment of a loan made by JMSE in respect of the Murphy property companies.
"You said you did not know what it was for," responded Mr O'Neill, "and now you say it was the payment of a loan from JMSE." He would have known that it was in the books of Grafton Construction (a Murphy land company) under a specific costs or disbursements heading, replied Mr O'Keeffe: "The money was spent by Grafton Construction. I did not know what it was for. I left it blank." In any event, he insisted, the statement did not form any part of the accounts of JMSE as such. It was purely an aidememoire to allow Mr O'Keeffe and his boss, the financial director, Mr Roger Copsey, to keep track of cash movements between JMSE and the land companies, Grafton and Reliable.
Mr O'Keeffe, who is a partner in the accountancy firm of Copsey Murray, was on secondment to JMSE at the time of the controversial payment to Mr Burke in June 1989. Earlier, Mr O`Keeffe told the tribunal of the day in June 1989 when he was dispatched by the JMSE chairman, Mr James Gogarty, to the Talbot Street, Dublin branch of AIB to collect a large amount of cash. He was brought into a room at the bank and shown a large amount of money. He had a cheque with him, but could not recall how much it was for: "From the evidence I assume it was for £20,000."
Mr Gogarty, who had requested the money, met him in the boardroom and he handed over the cash. He never knew the money was to be paid to Mr Ray Burke, he told the tribunal.