The former minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ray Burke, has today been giving evidence to the Flood tribunal about lodgements and withdrawals on accounts held in his name or variations of his name in Ireland and Britain.
At the start of proceedings he was asked about a £50,000 sterling lodgement paid into an account he held in the Isle of Man in December of 1982.
Mr Burke said the money was lodged by Mr Joe McGowan, a builder, who had been fundraising for the former minister in England. He said the sum lodged was a result of several donations which had been collected by Mr McGowan as part of his fundraising activities. Mr Burke said he was not aware of who the donors were and that he had not discussed them with Mr McGowan.
He said he did not see the need to transfer the money to Ireland as it had been raised overseas and felt it should remain overseas.
Mr Burke also said a lodgement of £60,000 paid into his account at the Hill Samuel bank on the island of Jersey on the 22nd of November 1984 was also made by Mr McGowan - again as part of his fundraising activities for Mr Burke. He said that lodgement was the winding up of Mr McGowan’s fundraising activities for him.
"Mr McGowan had been very successful at fundraising on my behalf and I’m very grateful to him for that. Some others in the party, like the Taoiseach, are better at fundraising than I am."
Asked about the "roundness" of the two figures - £50,000 and £60,000 - Mr Burke said he could not explain it.
Mr Burke was also questioned about two withdrawals he made in March 1984 of £1,000 and £9,000 from his account in the Isle of Man.
He said he made the withdrawals from an AIB mobile branch at Cheltenham while he was there for the racing festival. He told the tribunal he withdrew the money from the account for his political expenditure in Ireland.
Mr Hanratty SC questioned Mr Burke on why he would make two withdrawals and why he did not ask for the money to be transferred to one of his Dublin accounts rather than bringing £10,000 in cash through Dublin Airport.
"That’s just the way it was done," said Mr Burke.
It was put to him that the first withdrawal of £1,000, made on the 13th of March 1984, which was followed by the second withdrawal of £9,000 on 15th of March 1984, would look to some people that he had used the withdrawal of £1,000 to spend at Cheltenham.
"I would never had needed to withdraw money at Cheltenham for that purpose as I always came away with more than I brought with me," responded Mr Burke.
The former minister added that when dealing with those type of accounts he preferred to deal in cash.