Ray Burke is not corrupt. A paper trail of money received by him is simply a testament to his political ability, says Michael Clifford

The latest tax defaulters list from the Revenue Commissioners bears a resemblance to the witness list of the tribunals of yesteryear.

SOMETIMES, the circus gets out of hand. Last Sunday, a Government minister decried the slow rate of progress in criminal investigations into the banking collapse and the results from tribunal reports.

Several early revelations about suspected planning corruption were ignored and recommendations quietly buried before the Mahon Tribunal began its work, Michael Clifford reports

IT WAS the kind of funeral Terry Keane would have approved of. An elegant church in leafy south Dublin, ladies with perfectly co-ordinated handbag and shoes, wonderfully refined music and a celebrant who doubles as an expert on Caravaggio.

OVER 33 sometimes tedious, and more often entertaining, days in the witness box at Dublin Castle in 1999, James Gogarty achieved a fame that few octogenarians experience.

THE director of the construction company which built the controversial home of former minister Ray Burke in Swords has been refused the vast majority of his legal costs by the Planning Tribunal.

THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is to set up a special investigation unit to target wealthy property developers who bribed politicians and public officials.

I TRUST your columnist Noel Whelan didn’t receive any remuneration for his column (Irish Examiner, Sept 9) as he quite clearly ought to be back on the Fianna Fáil payroll.

The Planning Tribunal has rejected an application by builders Joe McGowan and Tom Brennan to have their legal costs paid by the State.

The Planning Tribunal is due to issue its ruling today in an application for costs from builders Tom Brennan and Joe McGowan.

RAY BURKE will probably welcome the fact that neither he nor his legal team were required to attend Dublin Castle yesterday to hear the Planning Tribunal chairman, Judge Alan Mahon, issue a ruling that will see him out of pocket for some considerable time.

FORMER minister, Ray Burke will learn today if taxpayers will be forced to pick up the €10.5m legal bill from his long-running involvement with the Planning Tribunal.

FORMER Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke has advised the chairman of the Planning Tribunal, Judge Alan Mahon, to look “close to home” for the source of leaks of confidential papers from the inquiry.

THERE is something ignominious about a frail 79-year-old man being hauled off to prison, shuffling along and trying to support himself with the aid of an umbrella.

POSSIBLY the best piece of news that came over the radio for a long time was the announcement that Ray Burke was handed a tax bill for 2 million.

RAY BURKE could elevate hubris into an art form.

DISGRACED former minister Ray Burke faces possible criminal charges for corruption on top of a 2 million tax bill he has received from the Criminal Assets Bureau. If found guilty he faces up to seven years in prison or a hefty fine.

THE Government was roundly criticised by local politicians yesterday for its failure to buy Lissadell House, the Sligo stately home where Countess Markievicz and her sister, poet Eva Gore Booth, spent their formative years.

A CRUCIAL hearing of the Flood Tribunal to decide how much of an estimated €50 million-plus legal bill must be picked up by those who have obstructed the inquiry has been postponed again.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup remains the premier event in the steeplechasing calendar, and Dessie Hughes certainly knows what it takes to win the Blue-Riband event of the festival, having piloted the Mick O’Toole-trained Davy Lad to victory in the 1977 race.

BY the time the Flood Tribunal completes its latest investigation into allegations of corruption over the rezoning of lands at Carrickmines in south Dublin, John Caldwell is set to become something of a household name — like his erstwhile associates, Liam Lawlor and Frank Dunlop.

Forget Harry Potter and Roy Keane. The Flood Report is the hottest book in town.

RAY Burke's period as chairman of Dublin Co Council will be examined in the next stage of the Flood Tribunal after its findings that the former minister received corrupt payments in the late 1980s.

FORMER Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke could be facing a two-year jail sentence over his failure to co-operate with the Tribunal on 14 separate counts.

The first report of the Flood Tribunal on planning and payments is due to be published today.

Former government minister Ray Burke will return to the witness stand at the Flood Tribunal later today to face further questions about a controversial land deal in Co Dublin in 1985.

A lawyer for the Flood Tribunal has accused one of the key witnesses of lying.

Dublin auctioneer John Finnegan has lost a legal bid to have his personal and financial dealings declared exempt from investigation by the Flood Tribunal.

The builders Brennan and McGowan have been given one last chance by the Flood Tribunal to produce documents being sought by the inquiry.

The Flood Tribunal has been told yet again that the building contractor, Tom Brennan is unable to explain how the former Government minister, Ray Burke paid for his former home.

Lawyers for the Dublin based auctioneer, John Finnegan will today launch a motion in the High Court to have their client excluded from further investigation by the Flood Tribunal.

The Flood Tribunal has been told that prominent Dublin auctioneer John Finnegan never made any investment in property deals from which he made more than £200,000.

The Flood Tribunal is due to resume in Dublin Castle this morning.