Taoiseach 'satisfied' about donation to Burke

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he was satisfied with the circumstances surrounding the donation of £30,000 by a building firm to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, in the 1989 general election campaign. He has also confirmed that he "went to extraordinary lengths" to find out about the payment before appointing Mr Burke to his Cabinet. "I know the circumstances about it and I am quite satisfied with the matter," said Mr Ahern.

Responding to a newspaper report naming Mr Burke as the recipient of the donation, Mr Ahern said in an RTE interview yesterday that he had asked all his Cabinet colleagues to produce evidence of their Revenue positions and their taxes. "Most have done so. Ray Burke has already done so."

In relation to the donation, in the public domain for at least two years, "insofar as I possibly could, I investigated this comprehensively and made contact with the key individuals concerned".

"There is no question in my mind that it was a political donation under the law as it was in 1989, that there were no favours asked or done in the context of it," said Mr Ahern.

The Taoiseach has had to deal publicly with allegations about Mr Burke on three separate occasions since the election campaign.

Two weeks before polling day, on May 23rd, The Irish Times asked the Fianna Fail leader to comment on recurring allegations about a leading member of his party.

Mr Ahern said: "I have gone to that member and gone through it in detail on four separate occasions as the allegations continued to come up in one newspaper over a period of 17 months. Insofar as I possibly can be, I am satisfied".

After the election campaign, as Mr Ahern began to address the composition of his Cabinet, he sent his then chief whip, Mr Dermot Ahern, to London to make further checks on the allegations.

He had discussions with a representative of the company which had paid the money and returned to reassure his party leader that there was no evidence the allegations were true. While the cash was paid, it had not been in return for political or planning favours.