Architects' fees fund for Burke `a charade'

Builders Brennan and Mc Gowan played a charade by pretending that money was being kept to pay "architects' fees" on a land deal, when it was actually paid to the former Fianna Fail minister Mr Ray Burke, the tribunal has heard.

Mr Dominick Hussey SC, for the auctioneer Mr John Finnegan, said his client was the only person fooled by this charade. "Everybody else", Brennan and McGowan and their advisers, knew the money was going to Mr Burke.

Mr Finnegan never met Mr Burke, and knew him "only by renown", Mr Hussey told the tribunal. His client hadn't given any money to Mr Burke, except the money paid by Canio, a company he owned with the two builders, and this had been paid without his knowledge.

Beginning his cross-examination of Mr Tom Brennan, counsel asked him what a political donation was. Mr Brennan said it was a donation made to a politician or party for their funds or their work.

Mr Hussey said you would expect the recipient of a donation to know who had paid it. Yet in this case, Mr Burke had received £60,000 from Canio, but didn't know Mr Finnegan.

The money paid to Mr Burke came from a mortgage raised on lands owned by the company at Sandyford, Co Dublin, in 1984. Mr Hussey pointed out that no planning permission was sought on these lands until 1991. This was a year after Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan bought out Mr Finnegan's interest.

Mr Hussey referred to documents showing it had been proposed that the three men would put £20,000 each to the "reserve fund", but Mr Finnegan dissented. Eventually £10,000 was deducted from money due to Mr Finnegan, and Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan made up the balance of £25,000 each.

The only person fooled by this charade, Mr Hussey asserted, was Mr Finnegan and his trustee in the Channel Islands, Mr D.J. Barry. Everyone else knew the £60,000 was going to Mr Burke. He said the payment to Mr Burke came top of the list before any distribution to the three Canio owners.

Documentation from the period appears to show that Mr Finnegan wanted to keep his involvement in Canio's application for a bank loan on the Sandyford lands silent.

However, Mr Hussey said this wasn't so. He had no reason to stay silent, and only Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan and their financial adviser, Mr Hugh Owens, wanted to keep Mr Finnegan's involvement secret. "You didn't want Mr Finnegan to know what you were doing for some reason," he said.

Later Mr Brennan told his counsel, Mr Martin Hayden SC, that Canio had not paid Mr Burke £35,000 in 1984. The tribunal is trying to establish the source of this money received by Mr Burke.

Mr Hayden referred to the secrecy around many of the land deals transacted by Brennan and McGowan. This wasn't unusual in the business, he suggested, because "if you knew who had three corners of a square, then the fourth corner would become very valuable".

After five weeks in the witness box, Mr Brennan is expected to finish his evidence today.