Ray Burke (Irish politician)

Ray Burke
Born	(1943-09-30) September 30, 1943 Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Republic of Ireland
Occupation	Politician

Raphael Patrick "Ray" Burke (Irish: Rae de Búrca; born 30 September 1943 in Dublin, Ireland) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is a former government minister who was convicted and jailed on charges arising from Political corruption in office. Burke was also highly influential in decisions made by Dublin Corporation, at local government level in Dublin city.

Early life and career

Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland and educated at O'Connell Schools before becoming an auctioneer. Burke's political career commenced when he was elected to Dublin County Council in 1967. He was Chairman of the Council between 1985 and 1987.

He was elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1973 general election for the Dublin County North constituency, following in the footsteps of his father Patrick J. Burke, a former hospital official, who was affectionately known as Bishop Burke. The Bishop was first elected as a Teachta Dála (TD) in May 1944 and served until 1973 when he retired and his son succeeded him. Ray Burke went on to hold his seat in the same constituency and in its successor Dublin North until his resignation almost twenty-five years later.

After Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election, Burke was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce. He supported George Colley in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest of 1979 but was still retained in his government position by the new Taoiseach, Charles Haughey. Burke was subsequently a staunch and vocal defender of Haughey during a number of internal heaves against the latter's leadership of the party. In October 1980 Burke was promoted to Minister for the Environment, a position he held until June 1981 and again in the short-lived Fianna Fáil government of 1982. After Fianna Fáil returned to power at the 1987 general election, Burke served as Minister for Energy until 1988, when he was appointed Minister for Industry and Commerce and Communications.

Following the formation of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats Coalition in 1989 he became Minister for Justice and Minister for Communications, a rather unusual combination of portfolios which would later pose questions of improper payments from the now defunct Century Radio. When Albert Reynolds came to power in 1992, he did not re-appoint Burke to the Cabinet. Fianna Fáil was back in power at the 1997 general election and Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by new Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Corruption allegations and fallout

Within months of his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, allegations resurfaced that Burke had received £80,000 from a property developer regarding the former Dublin County Council. Burke denied the allegations but resigned from the Cabinet and from the Dáil after just four months in office. This allegation lead to the setting up of the Planning Tribunal chaired by Mr Justice Feargus Flood. In an interim report of the subsequent Flood Tribunal he was unambiguously judged by Flood to be "corrupt".

After Burke's re-election in 1989, he had made it clear in interviews that he believed that the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ was biased against him and Fianna Fáil in its election coverage, and several RTÉ employees reported that while off-air at RTÉ’s election coverage, he remarked "I'm going to fucking screw RTÉ". After the election, he was appointed Minister for Justice yet retained the Communications brief, thus holding two portfolios which had never before (or since) been simultaneously held by the same Minister.

Burke was responsible for controversial legislation that severely limiting RTÉ’s ability to collect advertising revenue, and established a series of local radio stations, and one independent national radio station, Century Radio. RTÉ were ordered to provide a national transmission service for Century Radio at a price that RTÉ complained was far below the economic cost of providing such a service. For example, they were required by the service level agreement to have engineers on standby covering the entire country 24 hours a day; however the final payment for the entire transmission service was roughly equal to the salary for just one engineer.

Nevertheless, Century Radio failed to gain significant audience share and closed in 1991. An interim report of the Flood Tribunal found as fact that the backers of Century Radio had paid large bribes to Burke to secure favourable ministerial decisions. One of the local stations established was 98FM and in 2006 its owner, Irish businessman Denis O'Brien won a record €750,000 damages from the Irish Daily Mirror which had claimed that O'Brien had paid a bribe of IR£30,000 to Burke to secure a licence for the station.

Protesters against the controversial Corrib gas project, in particular members of Shell to Sea, have claimed that the deal made by Burke which exempted the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from paying any royalties for the gas extracted had the hallmarks of a corrupt decision.

In July 2004, Burke pleaded guilty to making false tax returns. . The charges arose from his failure to declare for tax purposes the payments that he had received from the backers of Century Radio. On 24 January 2005 he was sentenced to 6 months in jail for these offences, making him one of the most senior politicians in the history of Ireland to serve time in jail. He was released in June 2005 after four and a half months, earning a 25% remission of sentence because of good behaviour. He served his time in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.

Burke has maintained a low profile since completing his prison sentence but attended the June 2006 state funeral of Charles Haughey, his political patron. Several former associates of Burke, from his days as a member of Dublin Corporation (the 'Corpo'), continue to be the subjects of tribunals of inquiry set up to investigate irregularities in the planning process in Dublin.

See also

• Tribunal of Inquiry Into Certain Planning Matters and Payments

External links

• The Flood Tribunal
• Flood Tribunal Report on Ray Burke
• Wikisource: Cole Report into the granting of Irish passports to Khalid bin Mahfouz and associated persons