Sentencing of Burke deferred until January

Former Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke will have to wait until the New Year before being sentenced over tax offences for which he could face up to five years in jail and/or a maximum €127,000 fine.

Burke, a former minister for justice and foreign affairs, admitted in July to two counts relating to the lodgement of false tax returns.

It emerged last July that the former minister has made a €600,000 settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), which was investigating his finances.

Burke (60), from Griffith Downs, Drumcondra, admitted knowingly or wilfully furnishing incorrect information during the Government's tax amnesty of 1993 by failing to declare income of £151,980.

He also pleaded guilty to knowingly or wilfully furnishing incorrect information to the Inspector of Taxes on or after December 15th, 2003, by failing to declare income of £24,038.

The charges for these offences are provided for in the 1983 Finance Act and Section 9 of the 1993 Waiver of Certain Tax, Interest and Penalties Act.

However, separate charges under the 1993 tax amnesty legislation that carried more serious financial penalties and a jail term of up to eight years were dropped.

Judge Desmond Hogan remanded him on continuing bail for sentence until January 24th.

CAB has been investigating the former minister since September 2002, shortly after the interim report of the Flood tribunal found he received total corrupt payments of almost €250,000.

The year-long investigation by the bureau identified between €300,000 and €400,000 in income from 1973 to the early 1990s on which it believes Mr Burke did not pay income tax. The acquisition of his former home in Swords was also found to be corrupt.

The rest of the €2 million-plus sum that was being demanded from him is made up of penalties and interest in respect of the core amount.

Mr Burke is one of a number of figures who has featured in the planning and payments to politicians tribunals to be pursued by CAB on criminal matters through the courts.

He last appeared before the tribunal in April, where he denied meeting developer Mr Tom Gilmartin along with other Cabinet ministers in Leinster House in 1989, as Mr Gilmartin has claimed.

At different times in his political career, Mr Burke held a number of senior ministerial portfolios, including environment, energy, communications, commerce and industry, justice, and foreign affairs.

His last Cabinet position was in foreign affairs, to which he was appointed in 1997 by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. He was not a member of the cabinet at the time the tax amnesty was introduced in 1993, having been sacked by the-then taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, the year before