Of all the rumours that surround Ray Burke, the oldest concerns his house in Swords. In 1973, not long after he was elected to the Dβil, he moved into Briargate, a handsome pile on the Malahide Road. The house was built by Oak Park Developments, a company part-owned by Tom Brennan, and it was rumoured that Brennan and McGowan had given their friend the house for nothing.
Mr Burke himself raised the matter during his Dβil speech of September 1997. Towards the end of his speech, he referred to a newspaper article which claimed that the land on which the house was built was originally acquired by his father, Paddy Burke, who allegedly bought it from an inmate of the mental hospital at Portrane.
His voice quivering with emotion, Mr Burke said this was a "complete and utter lie". He explained that his father had worked as a nurse in Portrane until the mid-1950s. He brought with him the Land Registry documentation for his house. This showed that "far from being bought from a hospital patient under his care, the house and site was transferred to me and I bought it in a normal commercial transaction from Oak Park Developments".
Repeatedly, this deal has come back to haunt Mr Burke at the tribunal. In spite of his protestations, the records show this was no "normal commercial transaction". The conveyancing solicitor has told the tribunal that no money changed hands. The house was virtually built before he signed a contract for the land in August 1973.
Oak Park paid £7,000 for the site in 1972. According to Land Registry documents, the vendor was Mr Joseph Coleman, who was described as a ward of court. In the 1970s, Mr Coleman was an inmate of St Ita's Hospital in Portrane, where Paddy Burke had worked; he died later in St Brendan's psychiatric hospital. A few months after Oak Park bought the site, the company agreed to sell part of it to Mr Burke.
Yesterday, Mr Burke fashioned something of a defence to the persistent allegation that he got the house for nothing. Yet his claim that he paid £15,000 for the house and wrote off £7,500 in auctioneer's fees for the site still stands virtually unsupported by documentary evidence. Neither does it tally with his statement to the tribunal and the version given by his bank manager to the garda∅ back in 1974. However, his account served to muddy the waters sufficiently to ensure a frustrating day's questioning by Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal.
The amount Mr Burke says he paid for the site was equivalent to the commission on about 150 house sales. This contention may never be proved, as neither he nor Oak Park has any supporting documents. As for his claim that he paid £15,000 to have the house built, this rests on a withdrawal from an account he failed to declare to the tribunal.
Mr Burke says he withdrew £15,000 from a joint account he held with his father to pay Mr Brennan for the house. He says the money in that account came from the sale of the goodwill in his insurance brokerage and, yet again, the sale of houses on behalf of Brennan and McGowan.
But, if this is so, why didn't his bank manager tell the garda∅ this in 1974? Why didn't he mention it in his statement? Most people would remember how they paid for the house in which they lived most of their lives, but not Mr Burke.
The sum was certainly withdrawn from the account, but was it used to pay Mr Brennan? Again, the absence of records leaves us at a loss. The accounts of Oak Park make no reference to such a payment.
At the time, Mr Burke applied for a mortgage and, later, bridging finance, but he didn't avail of either option. Instead, according to his version, he was able to pay a sum equivalent to 15 times his Dβil salary out of his own funds.
It is interesting to note that the 1974 Garda investigation, in spite of Mr Burke's claims that it was "very thorough", would not have had access to his bank accounts unless he provided this.