BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN


This second interim report deals with three areas covering a period of 30 years. They were land rezoning, Century Radio and the use of offshore trusts and the use of offshore bank accounts by Ray Burke and others.

The report, generated by public hearings over 313 days and the testimony of 170 witnesses, with transcripts that extend to over 35,000 pages, does not have any specific recommendations. This will have to wait until the final Flood report and given that there are still a further 61 areas under inquiry, could be some time yet.

Ray Burke is the centrepiece of this interim report and it is his relationships with builders, developers, financiers and lobbyists that make up the complex web of corruption that the Flood Tribunal is painstakingly recreating.


Ray Burke - politician for sale


From the first year Ray Burke was elected to Leinster House, through subsequent election campaigns, and as a minister, he was engaging in corrupt practices. He used his position as a councillor, as a TD and as a minister for private personal gain.

As a TD and councillor, Ray Burke sought and received regular cash payments from property developers and builders such as Michael Bailey, Tom Brennan and Joseph McGowan.

As a minister for communications, Burke received £35,000 from Century Radio promoter Oliver Barry and Justice Flood has concluded that Burke acted in the interests of Century Radio rather than in the public interest when taking decisions on the market conditions the new national commercial station would face in its competition with RTE radio.

The Flood Tribunal report, limited to certain time periods and areas, has only given us a snapshot of some aspects of one TD's life and ministerial career. Questions remain as to Burke's other ministries and decisions. The interim findings by Flood highlight the need for a more thorough forensic examination of Burke's political career.

So far, Flood has uncovered corrupt payments to Burke of £65,000 as well as £165,000 sterling in an offshore account which Flood also deems a corrupt payment. There is also the little matter of Burke's former house and lands at Briargate in Swords, sold last year for €3.8 million. Burke has been unable to prove he actually paid for the house and the Tribunal has concluded that this too was a corrupt payment.

Ray Burke was also guilty of illegal transfer of funds to and from offshore bank accounts and the tribunal concludes that Burke used these accounts to "conceal the fact that he was the recipient of the funds contained in those accounts because the circumstances in which he came to be paid these sums would not withstand public scrutiny".


PJ Mara


One result of the Flood report was to hastily force the end of the political career of Fianna Fáil strategist, lobbyist and propagandist PJ Mara. The former Dublin Government press secretary and longtime ally of the now disgraced Charlie Haughey resigned as director of Fianna Fáil's Nice Treaty campaign. Mara had failed to disclose to the Tribunal the existence of an offshore bank account held by him in the Isle of Man.

The Flood report chapter dealing with Mara makes very interesting reading. It is stated that Mara's spending as government press secretary was greater than his income and that he received financial assistance from his friends Oliver Barry, one of the promoters behind Century Radio, and financier Dermot Desmond. Mara told the tribunal that his earnings at this time were between £47,000 to £48,000 annually.

Barry and Desmond made loans to Mara that had no structure, no interest charges or any form of timescale for payment.

It was alleged by witnesses to the Tribunal that Mara was, prior to the issue of the commercial television and radio licences, seeking cash payments of £90,000 for the independent TV licence, £75,000 for the commercial Dublin licences and £25,000 for each of the local radio licences. Mara has rejected this testimony.

He made two sworn affidavits because his first testimony did not provide "adequate attribution of certain specific payments". On the issue of his offshore bank account, Mara had "forgotten about it", even though there were was considerable turnover in the account and that he had set up a company registered in the Isle of Man to maintain this account.

Rejecting the allegations of seeking payments for licences, Mara had told the tribunal that he had been discussing a potential engagement with Century as a PR consultant with a salary of between £60,000 and £70,000. The tribunal considers this "highly improbable".


Co-operation with the Tribunal


As part of its legal powers, the Tribunal could legitimately seek information from any person "duly summoned to do so".

Chapter 17 of the Flood report has a list of those who refused to co-operate fully and therefore "obstructed and hindered the Tribunal".

The list of those who obstructed, hindered and/or gave false accounts includes Ray Burke, Tom Brennan. Joseph McGowan, John Finnegan, John Caldwell, Hugh Owens, Oliver Barry, James Stafford, PJ Mara, Joseph Murphy Snr, Joseph Murphy Jnr, Roger Copsey, Frank Reynolds, Tim O'Keefe, John Bates, Michael Bailey, Tom Bailey, Caroline Bailey.

Flood - so what happens next?

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN


There are still 61 areas under investigation by the Flood Tribunal. The tribunal has now been working for over four years and last week's interim report only covers a section of that work.


Lawlor, Redmond, Dunlop set to star


In particular, there are Flood deliberations on Liam Lawlor and the need to question all of the elected councillors from Dublin County Council during the period under examination on what monies they were offered and accepted or not from builders and developers seeking planning favours.

We still have to hear from Flood on disgraced assistant Dublin city and county manager George Redmond, who was arrested in 1999 after returning from the Isle of Man with £300,000 in cash. Redmond had denied holding any offshore bank accounts. In April 2000 he was fined £7,500 for tax offences and paid £782,000 to the Revenue Commissioners. We need to hear who paid Redmond hundreds of thousands of pounds over his career and why.

Then there is Frank Dunlop's operation of a slush fund to win council support for planning projects. Dunlop admitted to the Tribunal that he paid sums to over 20 council members to progress the planning of Liffey Valley shopping centre.


What should happen?


All those who obstructed or refused to cooperate with the work of the Tribunal need to be brought to account.

The Flood Tribunal is only dealing with one council. Are we really to believe that Dublin County Council was the only corrupt council in the 26 Counties? Leinster House needs to find a mechanism to empower a wide ranging review of all councils planning actions in recent years.

Just as the Moriarty Tribunal has decided to widen the scope of its inquiries to cover the granting of the second mobile phone licence to ESAT Digifone, there is a need to widen the scope of the Flood Tribunal to include the whole ministerial career of Ray Burke.

In particular, we need to focus on Burke's role during his brief tenure as minister of Energy from March 1987 to October 1988, when he effectively gave away Irish offshore resources by agreeing the world's most lax terms for oil and gas exploration licences in deepwater fields.

Now in just one case, the Corrib field, where exploration has been completed, it is clear that over €1.1 billion has been lost to the Irish exchequer, as has Irish control over the development and management of this vital resource. How many more billions have been squandered and will find their way in the bank accounts of oil companies?


Should Ahern be the focus?


There is no doubt that Bertie Ahern's political reputation has been damaged by the Flood findings on Ray Burke. Ahern's claim that his investigation of the allegations against Burke had been a comprehensive one is now exposed as a sham. He had claimed that he had been "up every tree in North Dublin".

There are serious questions still unanswered as to why Ahern appointed Burke as a minister. Ahern himself has said that "a test of the true democratic nature of any society is the effectiveness of its response to the exposure of wrongdoing".

He has cited new legislation on the prevention of corruption and standards in public office as proof of his commitment to tackle wrongdoing. However, in the meantime an ongoing trickle of disclosures and resignations still flows from Fianna Fáil. Haughey, Padraig Flynn, his daughter Beverly, Denis Foley, Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor have all been cited as TDs with questions to answer. Now PJ Mara joins the list of disgraced Fianna Fáil members, along with another former press secretary, Frank Dunlop.

Now dissent within Fianna Fáil is leading to rumours of moves against Ahern. This though, overlooks the role the party as a whole has played in corruption in Irish political life over the past three decades.

Replacing Ahern will do nothing to stamp out the environment of corruption that envelops the party. Fianna Fáil have to wake up to implications of the systematic abuse of power propagated by its members.

We need to know not just about Bertie Ahern's commitment to better standards in public office; we need to know too if the Fianna Fáil faithful are on board too. The signs so far are not promising. How many more resignations will we have to witness before the party as a whole realises that it isn't just a case of a few rotten apples?

Mara must resign from Fianna Fáil

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has said it is not enough that PJ Mara resigns his post with the Fianna Fáil Nice campaign, but that he must now resign any office he holds in Fianna Fáil. Last week, the second interim report of the Flood Tribunal cited him for failing to cooperate with its proceedings. He was particularly criticised for failing to disclose his offshore bank account in the Isle of Man.

"It is only fitting that Mr Mara also resign from any office he holds in Fianna Fail and that he provides a complete explanation of why he failed to cooperate fully with the Flood Tribunal and deals more fully with the conflicts of evidence outlined in the Flood report," said Crowe. "Mara's resignation is not just an indictment of his wrongdoing and deception, it also reflects very seriously on Fianna Fáil and their record in office.

"PJ Mara's national role within Fianna Fáil over the last 30 years has meant that he has been at the centre of party strategy and policy. Like Ray Burke, it was only when the case against him was overwhelming that he was forced from office and as in their stubborn support for Ray Burke, the leadership of Fianna Fáil have failed to ensure that those who hold public office for the party adhere to the highest standards in public life."