Burke returns to explain his change in evidence

The former Fianna Fβil minister, Mr Ray Burke, returns to the witness-box today for his fourth major appearance before the tribunal. His evidence will centre on his personal finances and the contributions he received from the builders Brennan and McGowan.

Mr Burke first gave evidence in July 1999 in relation to a £30,000 donation he received from Mr James Gogarty of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering in 1989. Last February, he gave evidence about a £30,000 payment from Mr Oliver Barry, chairman of Century Radio. Mr Burke was then called to give evidence in relation to the tribunal's investigations into his finances. He said the money from Brennan and McGowan was the result of fundraising carried out on his behalf by the two builders in the UK. This chimed with the account provided by the builders.

However, the tribunal traced the lodgments to Mr Burke's accounts and found they did not come from fund-raising. Tribunal lawyers uncovered a complex network of offshore banks and companies which were used to channel huge lump-sum payments to an offshore account held by the former minister. Between 1982 and 1985, he received at least £125,000 in this manner.

After this was discovered, Mr Burke wrote to Mr Justice Flood admitting to "a failure of recollection". Mr Burke is expected to be quizzed on this change in evidence and about Canio Ltd, a company which was used by Brennan and McGowan to pay £75,000 of the money channelled to him.

Tribunal lawyers are also interested in a £35,000 lodgment to Mr Burke's Jersey account in 1984. He originally ascribed this to fundraising in the UK but now says that it was a re-lodgment from an Isle of Man account.

A month before, one of Mr Burke's closest associates, Mr Tony Lambert, signed the Bord Pleanβla order granting a controversial planning permission at the Plantation site on Herbert Street in Georgian Dublin. The applicant was Criteria Developments, owned by Brennan and McGowan.

Mr Burke will also be questioned about the circumstances in which he acquired his land and house in Swords from a company linked to Mr Tom Brennan. Evidence has been given that no money changed hands in the transaction.

There is no indication when the tribunal plans to look into a £30,000 payment to Mr Burke by Rennicks Manufacturing and his involvement in the awarding of MMDS broadcasting licences.