Solicitor destroyed document that referred to Burke

A Dublin solicitor destroyed a Companies Office document referring to Mr Ray Burke the day after newspaper allegations about payments to Mr Burke first appeared in 1974, the tribunal has heard.

Mr Michael O'Hanrahan, now a consultant to Binchys solicitors, said he went to the Companies Office in June 1974, on the day after the Sunday Independent linked Dublin Airport Industrial Estates - a company owned by the builders Brennan and McGowan - to a payment of £15,000 to Mr Burke for "planning".

In the Companies Office, Mr O'Hanrahan found the reference to Mr Burke in the files. He discussed it with the registrar. "I agreed with her that that document shouldn't be on the file and I took it away with her permission on the same day."

He brought the document back to his offices and tore it up. Before destroying it, he made a copy.

Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, said Mr O'Hanrahan had not mentioned this to the gardai, who interviewed him in 1974 about the newspaper allegations.

Asked whether he had contact about the matter with his clients, Brennan and McGowan, after the newspaper article, he said he hadn't, although they "might have mentioned it to me".

Ms Dillon said the document indicated that £15,000 would be due to Mr Burke, under the heading of planning, from the sale of shares in the firm.

Mr Burke has already told the tribunal the document was not properly lodged in the Companies Office. It had not been properly stamped and was there "in error".