Mahon Tribunal
From Mahon Tribunal
The Tribunal of Inquiry Into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, commonly known as the Mahon Tribunal in honour of its chairman, and previously as the Flood Tribunal, was established by the Irish Government on November 4, 1997.
Its chairman is His Honour Judge Alan P. Mahon and other Members are Her Honour Judge Mary Faherty and His Honour Judge Gerald Keys. Its work is ongoing. The original Chairman, who was the sole Member until soon before his retirement, was His Honour Judge Feargus Flood.
Contents |
[edit] Modules
[edit] Gogarty (Completed)
James Gogarty claimed to have witnessed the handing over of two envelopes, said to contain £40,000 each, to Ray Burke at a meeting which took place at his home at Briargate, Swords, Co. Dublin shortly before the General Election, which took place on 15th June 1989. Mr. Burke was at that time Minister for Industry and Commerce.
Mr Gogarty claimed that the payments were made to Mr Burke in order to secure his support and political influence on councillors so as to achieve the rezoning and planning changes required to alter the status of approximately 700 acres of land owned by the Murphy companies in North County Dublin which were the subject of a joint development proposal involving Mr Michael Bailey and his Companies and the Murphy interests.
The Tribunal accepted Mr Gogarty's version of events, and found that former Minister Ray Burke had accepted bribes.
See:
[edit] Brennan/McGowan (Completed)
Mr Tom Brennan and Mr Joseph McGowan were both born in County Mayo in 1936 and 1944 respectively and were known to Mr. Ray Burke from the 1960’s onward. Mr Brennan and Mr McGowan were friends of Mr Burke’s father, Mr PJ Burke, TD who had also been born and raised in Co Mayo.
The Brennan & McGowan business relationship commenced as a partnership in 1965 when they started house building on a small scale in the Dublin area. They went on to form limited liability companies as their business increased and prospered. By the late 1970s they were amongst the largest house building companies in Ireland and both Mr Brennan and Mr Gowan were wealthy men.
In 1974, Mr Burke’s relationship with Messrs. Brennan and McGowan was the subject of a newspaper article written by Mr. Joe McAnthony, a journalist then with the Sunday Independent. In the course of the article, reference was made to a document, which had been sent to the Companies Office with the returns for Dublin Airport Industrial Estates Limited, a company connected with Messrs. Brennan and McGowan. The document contained a reference which stated “Ray Burke – planning - £15,000”. As Mr Burke was at that time both a County Councillor and a newly elected member of the Dáil, this article attracted widespread attention. A Garda investigation followed and at its conclusion did not recommend prosecution of any individual.
In correspondence with Brennan and McGowan, the Tribunal sought to establish the full circumstances relating to all payments made by them to Mr Burke. However, this correspondence did not produce the necessary information. The Tribunal invited Messrs. Brennan and McGowan to provide a written narrative account of their dealings with Mr. Burke but this invitation was declined. Accordingly, the Tribunal decided to call both Mr. Brennan and Mr. McGowan to give evidence at the public sessions of the Tribunal in April 2000.
The module examines in detail corrupt payments made to Mr Burke by Brennan & McGowan.
See:
[edit] Century Radio (Completed)
In the course of the Tribunal’s inquiries carried out under the original Terms of Reference, it emerged that a lodgment of £39,500 had been made to one of Ray Burke’s bank accounts on the 31st May 1989.
Upon inquiry, Mr. Burke informed the Tribunal that the payment was an amalgam of political donations received by him, one of which was a donation in the sum of £35,000 from Mr. Oliver Barry, a businessman, who was involved in the entertainment business. At the date of payment Mr. Barry was centrally involved with a company called Century Communications Limited (Century), which in January 1989, had been awarded the first independent National Sound Broadcasting Contract in the State.
As the Minister for Communications at the date of payment, Mr. Burke was responsible for matters relating to the granting of broadcasting licences, although the power to award sound broadcasting contracts was not within his remit but rested with the Independent Radio and Television Commission (IRTC), an independent statutory authority.
The following three substantive areas became the focus of inquiry, namely:
1. The circumstances surrounding the payment itself;
2. The issuing of a Directive by Mr. Burke as Minister for Communications under Section 16 of the Radio and Television Act 1988, which prescribed a series of tasks for performance by RTÉ in return for certain payments by Century at an amount fixed by him;
3. The circumstances surrounding Mr. Burke’s relationship with Century’s promoters in 1989 and 1990 when it was in serious financial difficulty and in particular
See: Century Radio Module
[edit] Carrickmines/Jackson Way
The first sub-module of the rezoning/planning module (which, for convenience, was called Carrickmines 1) began in November 2002 and deals with rezoning and related matters concerning the lands at Carrickmines Great, known as the Paisley Park/Jackson Way lands and adjoining and nearby lands in Carrickmines Valley, including lands owned by Brian O'Halloran, Gerard Kilcoyne and Professor Austin Darragh.
Having heard evidence in relation to the rezoning and attempted rezoning of the Jackson Way/Paisley Park (and contiguous lands owned by Brian O'Halloran, Kilcoyne and Darragh), the Tribunal, in a different sub-module, (called "Carrickmines 2") heard evidence in relation to the ownership of the Paisley Park/Jackson Way lands since 1985.
Carrickmines 2 is essentially concerned with an investigation into the ownership and more particularly the beneficial ownership of the Jackson Way, formally Paisley Park lands, in Carrickmines in respect of which allegations of corruption in the planning process were inquired into in 2003 in the Carrickmines 1 module.
See: Carrickmines
[edit] Cherrywood/Monarch
The lands under investigation in this module amount to 236 acres approximately. These lands were originally owned as indeed was a much larger area of land by Mr Sean Galvin who has already given evidence to the Tribunal in the course of the Carrickmines I Module.
These 236 acres were sold by Mr Galvin to Perivale Limited for £9.93 million. This at that time in 1989 was considered to be a high price. Perivale Limited was a Monarch controlled company which later changed its name to Cherrywood Developments Limited. Prior to this, Monarch had been involved in a joint venture development in the Square, Tallaght, with an English company, Guardian Assurance Plc, otherwise known as Guardian, as a development partner.
In this module, it is understood that Monarch and Guardian agreed to enter into a joint venture agreement in connection with the proposed development of the Cherrywood lands and entered into a series of complex legal transactions to give effect to that agreement.
See: Cherrywood
[edit] Quarryvale
The Quarryvale Module is a wide ranging inquiry dealing with the redevelopment of lands at Quarryvale, County Dublin, upon which the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre now stands. The Tribunal is examining the involvement of developers, politicians at national and local level, local authority officials and lobbyists in the rezoning of those lands. Ultimately, the inquiry being conducted is trying to determine whether any acts connected with the process amounted to corruption.
This is also the module which deals with alleged payments to Bertie Ahern, who as a result of conflicting evidence with his former secretary Grainne Carruth, announced his resignation on April 2, 2008. As of that date, he had yet to explain contradictory statements and evidence he gave under oath to the tribunal. He is due to again give evidence on June 4, 2008.
See: Quarryvale
[edit] Lissenhall
[edit] Interim Reports
[edit] First
The First Interim report lays out the work of the Tribunal for the coming years. It was published just after the then Flood Tribunal began its work.
See: First Interim Report
[edit] Second
The Second Interim Report was published in September 2002. It reported findings related to the first three modules, Gogarty, McGowan and Century Radio/Ray Burke. It is the most substantial of the reports thus far, and caused massive controversy at the time of its publication.
[edit] Third
The Third Interim Report of the Tribunal was published on September 30, 2002 by Mr Justice Fergus Flood. It deals mainly with the activities of George Redmond.
See: Third Interim Report
[edit] Fourth
The Fourth Interim report informed the Oireachtas of the extent of the workload of the Tribunal and its likely duration, to inform the Oireachtas of the Tribunal’s respectful request for amendments to the current Terms of Reference and to inform the Oireachtas of other matters related to the work of the Tribunal which the Tribunal deems may be relevant to the Oireachtas.
[edit] Tribunal Costs and Tax Yield
According to figures released by the Department of Environment, the Mahon Tribunal had cost €69.5 million by the end of October 2007. Irish Times
The Tribunal had cost the State €27 million by 2002 but €34.5 million was recovered by the Revenue Commissioners and the Criminal Assets Bureau, according to Judge Flood in the Second Interim Report.
The work of the Tribunal led directly to the biggest tax settlement in the history of the State. In June 2006, the Bailey brothers and their company, Bovale Developments reached a settlement worth about €25 million with the Revenue Commissioners in respect of PAYE, PRSI, Corporation Tax and Income Tax in 2006. Irish Independent
In 2004, Bovale was the most profitable property company in the history of the State, recording a surplus of almost €70 million. The company is no longer limited.
The Criminal Assets Bureau secured an order to freeze lands in Carrickmines, thought to be worth up to €70m. The court case in relation to these lands is still pending.
[edit] Criminal Assets Bureau Investigation
The Criminal Assets Bureau successfully obtained a High Court order on July 26 2006 freezing land assets of 107 acres at Carrickmines, County Dublin owned by Jackson Way Properties Ltd and preventing their sale. CAB contended that these lands had been rezoned by a 13 - 11 vote on December 16 1997 by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council from agricultural to industrial after Frank Dunlop bribed and made corrupt payments to councillors to secure their support in the rezoning vote. That vote, for example, increased the value of just 17 acres of the property from €8 million to €61 million. CAB has interviewed and took statements from Frank Dunlop and will use him as a witness against a number of property developers.
If this case succeeds the potential money realised by CAB will be substantially more than the yield from gangland criminals since 1996. Other similar cases are likely to ensue involving lands investigated by the Mahon Tribunal.
[edit] Witness schedule and transcripts
Hundreds of witnesses have given evidence at the Tribunal. This is a list of all witnesses who have given evidence since October 30, 2002 and their respective transcripts. (In progress)
See: Witnesses
[edit] Leaks of Tribunal evidence
There have been numerous leaks of Tribunal evidence to the media. The opportunity for leaks exists because witnesses are provided in advance with documentation covering matters that they will asked about when they appear. Of course, Tribunal staff also have access to such materials.
See: Tribunal leaks
[edit] Court judgments
The Tribunal has faced a number of legal challenges.
See: Court judgments
