Builders change statement on donations to Ray Burke

The Flood Tribunal has been told that builders Brennan and McGowan have corrected evidence given earlier to Justice Flood.

In a statement to the tribunal, they said that a series of payments totalling £125,000 given to Ray Burke in the 1980s were in fact political donations, not from fund-raising as previously claimed.

The tribunal also heard that Sir Tony O'Reilly, owner of Independent Newspapers, was principal in a firm of solicitors called Sheerin Wynne in the early 1970s.

Sheerin Wynne acted for a company called Oak Park Developments, which was controlled by Brennan and McGowan, who built Ray Burke's house in 1973.

The architect who designed the house, John Keenan, was later appointed to An Bord Pleanala by Ray Burke.