Ray Burke

Now, he was under severe pressure that day.

And I'd walked in and he was, Ray Burke was in the office with him.

So he's clearly planning his strategy, how he's going to deal with Des O'Malley and the dissidents in Fianna Fáil.

And this kind of young reporter wanders in unannounced.

So he passed the story on.

But even, I was saying earlier, I remember one time in the Dáil, after the order of business in the Dáil, usually journalists, TDs went down for coffee to the visitor's bar.

And I remember in the corner one day talking to Ray Burke and Brian Lenehan, senior, who were both having a vodka at half 10 in the morning, quarter to 11, because they had a cabinet meeting and quite a tense one coming up.

I can't remember what the issue was, but they were steeling themselves to go in and face Charlie and deal with him.

They actually had contacted another journalist in the Sunday Business Post where I worked, and, um, Mary McKeown, and she, she, she told me about it.

I had previously investigated Ray Burke, and I knew or she told me that one of the allegations concerned, uh, um, Burke, who was then a prominent member of Fine Gael and a former minister in Charlie Haughey's governments in the late '80s and 1990s.

I then followed up some of the allegations that were made to, to, um, the solicitor's firm and, uh, through that process, met with a guy called Jim Gogarty, who lived in North Dublin in Sutton and who had a serious, uh, uh, issue with his former employers, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers, a big engineering company owned by, um, a Kerry man called Joseph Murphy, uh, Joseph Murphy Sr., as he was known, because his son was Joseph Murphy also.

Mm-hmm.

And he held that in reserve as a sort of an insurance policy for himself, and that generated even more anti- um, antagonism between himself and the company, Joe Murphy Sr. and Joe Murphy Jr. in particular, which caused a series of, of, um, attacks and, uh, a whole period of intimidation against Joe, uh, Jim Gogarty for retaining these monies, which of course, he'd agreed with his boss that he would, he would be allowed to retain if he had got the money back from, that was owed by the ESB or a proportion of it.

Um, so he didn't feel he was doing anything wrong, and his solicitor ac- uh, uh, accepted that.

That led to, um, him coming forward because he still hadn't got his pension with an allegation that he was present in a room in North Dublin in the home of Ray Burke in June of 1989 during the election campaign, and he witnessed his boss, Joe Murphy Jr., and another builder called Michael Bailey of Bovell Developments hand over 80 grand in cash, two envelopes with 40,000 in each.

That was what was arranged.

Um, you have suggested here that not all criminals wear balaclavas.

Tell us about Ray Burke and bringing us back to what we were saying about that idea that the criminals have that, you know, the real, the real criminals are down at the dole.

That's always what they say.

Yeah.

And, and I sup- they did, they had a point.

Uh, you know, certainly at, at that, uh, in the early days of the 2000s, you know, it was a, it was a valid argument.

So a former Minister for Justice, Ray Burke, he, he was actually jailed for six months in 2005.

That was for failing to make tax returns, tax returns.

Kevin Neary in particular, and they came to me, they actually had contacted another journalist in the Sunday Business Post where I worked, and Mary McKeown, and she told me about it.

I had previously investigated Ray Burke, and I knew, or she told me that one of the allegations concerned Burke, who was then a prominent member of Fianna Fáil and a former minister in Charlie Hawhey's governments in the late 80s and 1990s.

I then followed up some of the allegations that were made to the solicitor's firm and through that process met with a guy called Jim Gogarty who lived in North Dublin in Sutton and who had a serious issue with his former employers, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers, a big engineering company owned by a Kerry man called Joseph Murphy.

Joseph Murphy Senior, as he was known, because his son was Joseph Murphy also, both of whom were directors of his company.

And that generated even more antagonism between himself and the company, Joe Murphy Senior and Joe Murphy Junior in particular, which caused a series of attacks and a whole period of intimidation against Jim Gobert for retaining these monies, which, of course, he'd agreed with his boss that he would he would be allowed to retain if he had got the money back from that was owed by the ESB or a proportion of it.

So he didn't feel he was doing anything wrong and his solicitor accepted that.

That led to him coming forward because he still hadn't got his pension with an allegation that he was present in a room in North Dublin in the home of Ray Burke in June of 1989 during the election campaign.

And he witnessed his boss, Joe Murphy Jr., and another builder called Michael Bailey of Beauvale Developments hand over 80 grand in cash, two envelopes with 40,000 in each.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, Ray Burke, and that was over something that you don't usually get locked up for.

That was a token gesture on the part of the political elite to make you look like that someone was being punished for tax evasion.

That shows you how silly and crazy politicians of today are.