Flood hears of Burke house purchase

The Flood tribunal heard today of the unusual circumstances surrounding Mr Ray Burke’s purchase of his former home in Swords, Co Dublin.

Mr Ray Burke at the Flood tribunal yesterday. Photograph: Eric Luke.

Mr Burke says he paid £7,500 in 1972 for the one acre site on the Malahide Road to Oak Park Developments - a company owned by Meath builder Mr Tom Brennan.

However no money actually changed hands, Mr Burke says the sum was written off against fees due to him for auctioneering services to the building company.

Solicitors involved in the sale have previously given evidence to the Tribunal that no money changed hands for the site.

As part of the deal Mr Burke says he agreed to pay Oak Park a further £15,000 to build him a house on the land, making the deal worth £22,500 in total.

However there is no documentary evidence that Mr Burke handed over the sum of £15,000 as he claims.

By July 1973, only months before the house was finished and Mr Burke was due to move in, there was no written record of any contract between Mr Burke and Oak Park in connection with either the land purchase or the building of the house.

When asked why this was so, Mr Burke said everything was done verbally as he had a close working relationship with Oak Park.

Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, asked Mr Burke whether he thought this represented "a normal commercial transaction".

Mr Burke said it certainly did. "I was dealing with honourable men. In the real world in which some of us live, a man’s word is as good as his bond," he said.

Mr Burke says he paid the £15,000 due on the house with a cheque drawn on a bridging loan account which he held with the Bank of Ireland in Whitehall.

However, it appears that Mr Burke never utilised any loan facilities with the Bank but transferred money into the loan account from another deposit account he held with the bank.

Mr Burke sold the house and the surrounding lands for over £3 million last year.