Contributions by large companies to political parties are a regular and ongoing, if secretive, practice. But there are a number of aspects to the £30,000 donation from Fitzwilton which have sparked the latest controversy.
The fact that the cheque was made out to cash is probably unusual. Also, Fitzwilton's assertion that it handed the cheque to Mr Ray Burke increases interest in the payment.
Mr Burke resigned as minister for foreign affairs last year because of a controversy over his receipt of £30,000 from Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers (JMSE) in June 1989. Mr Burke has said that he kept most of this for the payment of constituency expenses.
He passed £10,000 to Fianna Fail party headquarters.
However, it now seems that Mr Burke received £30,000 from JMSE and £30,000 from Fitzwilton in the run-up to the 1989 general election.
The fact that Mr Burke did not make matters clear in his statements to the Dail last year about the JMSE payment adds to the controversy. Indeed, on September 5th 1997, he issued a statement which said: "I wish to confirm that I will be making a statement in the Dail next week concerning the political donation of £30,000 which I received in the course of the general election of 1989".
When he made his statement in the Dail the following week, it was about the JMSE payment. This payment is among the matters being investigated by the Flood Tribunal.
Fitzwilton plc, the industrial holdings company, yesterday issued a oneline statement saying that it had no trading or business relationship with Princes Holdings.
The short statement was in response to a call from the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, that any connection between the two companies should now be set out publicly.
In his statement, Mr Bruton detailed how Mr Burke had issued exclusive MMDS TV licences to Princes Holdings in 1989 when he was minister for industry and commerce.
MMDS is a microwave system for distributing television signals and is used in areas of low population density, where cabling is not practical. The granting of the licences to Princes Holdings in September 1989 was, in effect, the granting of a monopoly franchise to supply multi-channel TV in the designated areas.
The only connection between Fitzwilton and Princes Holdings is Dr Tony O'Reilly, something which was presumably known to Mr Bruton when he was drawing up his statement on Wednesday. Dr O'Reilly is chairman of Fitzwilton and of Independent Newspapers, which owns 50 per cent of Princes Holdings. In August 1996, when Mr Bruton was Taoiseach, he met Dr O'Reilly in his [Dr O'Reilly's] summer home in Glandore, Co Cork, in an attempt to settle a dispute between the government and Princes Holdings.
Dr O'Reilly had complained that the government was not delivering on a commitment to close down illegal operators, which were taking custom from Princes. The issue was never satisfactorily resolved between the two sides.
In February 1991, when Mr Burke was minister for justice and communications, he sent a letter to Mr Joe Hayes, former managing director of Independent Newspapers, stating: "Immediately MMDS service is available in any of your franchise regions, my Department will apply the full rigours of the law to illegal operations affecting that franchise region."
Princes Holdings has initiated proceedings to sue the Government for its failure to deliver on this commitment, alleging that it had cost it losses of between £24 million and £25 million.
When the coalition government failed to resolve the issue with Independent Newspapers, executives of the newspaper group said that the Government would "lose Independent Newspapers as friends".
Fitzwilton Holdings is an industrial holding company which is backed by Dr O'Reilly and a number of associates.
The cheque given to Mr Burke came from a Fitzwilton subsidiary called Rennicks, which is based in Mulhuddart, Co Dublin. Rennicks was Fitzwilton's only operating subsidiary in Ireland up to two weeks before the handing over of the money in June 1989.
Rennicks makes road signs and vehicle markings. Fitzwilton bought 51 per cent of the company for £800,000 in 1988. Mr Robin Rennicks, who held on to the remaining 49 per cent of the company, was one of the executives who delivered the cheque to Mr Burke. The other executive was Mr Paul Power.
Two weeks earlier, Fitzwilton had bought 80 per cent of his company, Novum, a freezer and cold cabinet manufacturer based in Artane, Dublin. Mr Power knew Mr Burke, although they were not friends, according to a Fitzwilton spokesman. Mr Power did not wish to comment yesterday. Mr Rennicks was out of the State yesterday and not available for comment.
It was outlined in the Dail yesterday how an anonymous letter sent last autumn to the then Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, claimed that the request for funds was made by Mr Burke during a meeting he had with Mr Rennicks, Mr Power and another person to discuss a grant application Rennicks Ltd had made to the IDA.
The £30,000 came from Rennicks Ltd funds. The company was subsequently reimbursed with funds from Fitzwilton and Novum.