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54-587: The Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments , commonly known as the Mahon Tribunal after the name of its last chairman, was a public inquiry in Ireland established by Dáil Éireann in 1997 to investigate allegations of corrupt payments to politicians regarding political decisions. It mostly investigated planning permissions and land rezoning issues in the 1990s in

108-532: A Fine Gael candidate in Dublin South-East in the 2002 general election now a High Court Judge, in 1995 co-sponsored a £10,000 reward for information leading to convictions for planning corruption. James Gogarty, a retired employee of construction firm JSME, responded with information about payments to Ray Burke , a government minister and former chairman of Dublin County Council. During

162-651: A property developer regarding the former Dublin County Council . Burke denied the allegations but resigned from the cabinet and from the Dáil, on 7 October 1997, after just four months in office. This allegation led to the setting up of the Planning Tribunal chaired by Justice Feargus Flood . In an interim report of the Tribunal, Flood judged Burke to be "corrupt". After Burke's re-election in 1989, he had made it clear in interviews that he believed that RTÉ ,

216-410: A 13–11 vote on 16 December 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 (69,000 m) of the property from €8 million to €61 million. CAB interviewed and took statements from Frank Dunlop with

270-625: A bribe of £30,000 being paid in cash to Minister Burke. Gogarty, by now in dispute with his former employers, claimed the payment was in seeking Burke's influence to secure approval to rezone 726 acres (2.94 km) of land at several locations in north Dublin, including Finglas , Ballymun , Balgriffin , Portmarnock and Donabate . The lands in questions were the subject of a joint development involving JMSE, Michael Bailey, and his brother Tom Bailey. Gogarty also provided evidence of payments to George Redmond, Dublin Corporation manager. Gogarty

324-424: A commission. The commission established after the 2012 Lamma Island ferry collision produced a report of its findings which they made public; an internal report was kept confidential. In the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests , one of the five key demands of the protesters, was establishing another commission for the protests itself. Ray Burke (Irish politician) Raphael Patrick Burke (born 30 September 1943)

378-478: A day, when the final payment for the entire transmission service was roughly equal to the salary for just one engineer. Nevertheless, Century Radio failed to gain significant audience share and closed in 1991. An interim report of the Flood Tribunal found as fact that the backers of Century Radio had paid large bribes to Burke to secure favourable ministerial decisions. One of the local stations established

432-421: A decision in 1992 by Pat Rabbitte , then a Democratic Left TD, to return a donation of IR£2,000 to Frank Dunlop was "commendable and correct". Five councillors are specifically named as having received corrupt payments. These are Fianna Fáil councillors Tony Fox, Colm McGrath, Don Lydon and G. V. Wright ; and Fine Gael's Tom Hand. It established that Davy Stockbrokers , throughout the 1980s and 1990s, made

486-572: A former Minister. His barrister at his 2005 sentencing hearing stated these were his only income. As well as general criticism that such pensions are overly generous, Burke's continued receipt of these pensions while in prison and after his condemnation in the Flood report attracted criticism. Their combined income value was €66,000 in 2003 and €103,838 in 2011. Note that the boundaries of Dublin North from 1981–2016 share no common territory with

540-477: A government refuses a public inquiry on some topic, it is usually on at least one of these grounds. The conclusions of the inquiry are delivered in the form of a written report, given first to the government, and soon after made public. Reports usually make recommendations to improve the quality of government or management of public organisations in the future. A 2016 study found that the reports of public inquiries are not effective in changing public opinion regarding

594-537: A loan of IR£ 30,000 from a special Fianna Fáil fundraising account to buy a house. After the exchange, opposition leaders called for the Taoiseach's resignation. On 20 March Ahern's former secretary, Gráinne Carruth, was forced, on evidence presented to her by the tribunal, to accept as a matter of probability that a lodgement of 15,000 pounds she had made into an account on Ahern's behalf had been in sterling. This directly contradicted to Ahern's previous assertion that

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648-694: A new planning regulator to give direction to local and regional planning authorities; new limits on political donations; a new register of lobbyists; expanded disclosure requirements for public officials; and a ban on members of the Oireachtas who are convicted of bribery from holding public office. After the publication of the final report, Fianna Fáil sought to expel any of its members that were found to have received corrupt payments. Bertie Ahern, Pádraig Flynn, G. V. Wright, Don Lydon, Finbarr Hanrahan and John Hannon all resigned from Fianna Fáil before they could be expelled. Fine Gael Councillor Anne Devitt said she

702-431: A range of major and lesser land use developments, including highways and other transport proposals. Advocacy groups and opposition political parties are likely to ask for public inquiries for all manner of issues. The government of the day typically only accedes to a fraction of these requests. The political decision whether to appoint a public inquiry into an event was found to be dependent on several factors. The first

756-420: A series of payments to the corrupt politician Liam Lawlor . In 1993, the then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and Bertie Ahern, who was then Minister for Finance , wrote to developer Owen O'Callaghan seeking a substantial donation. At the time O'Callaghan was heavily involved in lobbying for state support for a stadium project at Neilstown, County Dublin. According to the report, O'Callaghan felt compelled to donate

810-439: A sum of IR£80,000 to Fianna Fáil in order to get funding for the stadium. The Mahon Tribunal said it did not find the payment to be corrupt. However, the report said pressurising a businessman to donate money when he was seeking support for a commercial project was "entirely inappropriate, and was an abuse of political power and government authority". The main recommendations of the report are: more robust whistleblower legislation;

864-475: Is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from June 1997 to October 1997, Minister for Justice from 1989 to 1992, Minister for Communications from 1987 to 1991, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1988 to 1989, Minister for Energy from 1987 to 1988, Minister for the Environment from March 1982 to December 1982 and 1980 to 1981 and Minister of State at

918-454: Is the extent of media coverage of the event; those that receive more media interest are more likely to be inquired. Second, since the appointment of a public inquiry is typically made by government ministers, events that involve allegations of blame on the part of the relevant minister are less likely to be investigated by a public inquiry. Third, a public inquiry generally takes longer to report and costs more on account of its public nature. When

972-462: Is transformed into an acknowledged way of doing business. Specifically, because corruption affected every level of Irish political life, those with the power to stop it were frequently implicated in it." It found that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern failed to "truthfully" explain source of money and it rejected his evidence of "dig-outs", and that former EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn "wrongly and corruptly" sought donation from Tom Gilmartin. It stated that

1026-586: The Dublin County Council area. Judge Alan Mahon was the final chair of the tribunal and its other members were Judge Mary Faherty and Judge Gerald Keys . The original chairman, who was the sole member until just before his retirement, was Judge Feargus Flood , giving rise to the original common name of the Flood Tribunal . Using investigations to collect evidence and public hearings with witnesses, it investigated allegations made in

1080-728: The United Kingdom , Scottish , Northern Irish and Welsh governments to investigate either specific, controversial events or policy proposals. Non-statutory public inquiries are often used in order to investigate controversial events of national concern, the advantage being that they are more flexible than the statutory inquiry as they do not need to follow the requirements of the Inquiries Act 2005 , The Inquiry Rules 2006 (UK, excluding Scotland) and The Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007. Statutory inquiries can be held as subject-specific public inquiries, however most are now held under

1134-524: The state funeral of Charles Haughey in June 2006, his political patron. Several former associates of Burke, from his days as a member of Dublin County Council, continue to be the subjects of tribunals of inquiry set up to investigate irregularities in the planning process in Dublin. Burke is entitled to two public service pensions, one as a former TD at the maximum rate for over 20 years' service, and another as

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1188-513: The Department of Industry, Commerce and Energy from 1979 to 1980. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1973 to 1997. Burke was born in Dublin . He was educated at O'Connell School , he went on to study at University College Cork , before becoming an auctioneer . Burke's political career commenced when he was elected to Dublin County Council for Fianna Fáil in 1967. He was chairman of

1242-589: The Government to investigate. The tribunal was formally established on 4 November 1997 to investigate the Gogarty allegations, and also any acts related to planning processes which might have involved corruption. The terms dictated that the Tribunal would enquire into payments to Ray Burke in the course of his long political career and examine the decisions he had made in broadcasting as well as in planning. The government had just months earlier also established

1296-602: The Inquiries Act 2005 which repealed the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 . Statutory public inquiries, unlike non-statutory inquiries, have legal powers to compel witnesses. This list excludes Public Local Inquiries (which encompasses Planning Inquiries, Compulsory Purchase Order Inquiries, Listed Building Inquiries etc.) In Hong Kong, the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance was enacted for establishing such

1350-870: The State €21 million by 2002 but €34.5 million was recovered by the Revenue Commissioners and the Criminal Assets Bureau . The Bailey brothers and their company, Bovale Developments reached a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in respect of PAYE , PRSI , Corporation Tax and Income Tax in 2006. The Criminal Assets Bureau successfully obtained a High Court order on 26 July 2006 freezing land assets of 107 acres (0.43 km) at Carrickmines , County Dublin owned by Jackson Way Properties Ltd and preventing their sale. CAB contended that these lands had been rezoned by

1404-489: The activities of George Redmond. 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. The final report

1458-480: The advent of full democracy in 1994. A number of which have looked into national scale events such as systematic human rights abuses during apartheid or wide scale corruption . In the United Kingdom, the term public inquiry, also known as a tribunal of inquiry, refers to either statutory or non-statutory inquiries that have been established either previously by the monarch or by government ministers of

1512-519: The backers of Century Radio. On 24 January 2005, he was sentenced to six months in prison for these offences, making him one of the most senior Irish politicians to serve time in prison. He was released in June 2005, after four and a half months, earning a 25% remission of sentence because of good behaviour. He served his time in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin. Burke has maintained a low profile since completing his prison sentence but attended

1566-643: The compulsory acquisition of private property must, before being approved, be the subject of a public inquiry (usually by the prefect of the region or department in which the project will take place); the favourable outcome of such an inquiry is a déclaration d'utilité publique , a formal finding that the project will produce public benefit. This procedure was established by the law on expropriation enacted on 7 July 1833, which extended an earlier law enacted in 1810. A number of historically important public inquiries have taken place in South Africa since

1620-494: The council from 1985 to 1987. Burke was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1973 general election for the Dublin County North constituency, succeeding his father Patrick Burke , who had held the seat for 29 years. Ray Burke represented this constituency and its successor Dublin North until his resignation almost twenty-five years later. After Fianna Fáil's landslide victory at the 1977 general election , Burke

1674-414: The establishment of a series of local radio stations and one independent national radio station, Century Radio . RTÉ were ordered to provide a national transmission service for Century Radio at a price that RTÉ complained was far below the economic cost of providing such a service. For example, they were required by the service level agreement to have engineers on standby covering the entire country 24 hours

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1728-399: The event in question. Empirical studies do not find support for the claim that appointing a public inquiry leads to a decline in media attention to the inquired issue. Public inquiry reports appear to enjoy public trust only when they are critical of a government, and tend to lose credibility when they find no fault on the part of the government. In France, any major project which requires

1782-535: The finances of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern . Ahern and O'Callaghan denied that any such payments had taken place. Details of specific transactions under investigation were leaked to the press and questions were asked in the Dáil. During a September 2006 interview with RTÉ's Bryan Dobson Ahern denied that he had received any illegal payments and claimed that some of the transactions related to unsolicited dig-outs from friends during his legal separation proceedings in 1993 and 1994. Further transactions relating to

1836-649: The formation of the Fianna Fáil– Progressive Democrats coalition in 1989, he was appointed as Minister for Justice and Minister for Communications in the government of Charles Haughey. When Albert Reynolds succeeded Haughey in 1992, he did not re-appoint Burke to the cabinet. Following the 1997 general election , Fianna Fáil was back in office, and Burke was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs , by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern . Within months of his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, allegations resurfaced that Burke had received IR£ 80,000 from

1890-522: The formation of the new Ahern Government in June 1997, questions about the suitability of the appointment of Burke as a minister were raised. Ahern asked Dermot Ahern to investigate, and defended Burke, saying "I've looked up every tree in North Dublin". Burke was appointed to the Government but resigned in September following further public revelations and questions. This increased pressure on

1944-401: The intention of using him as a witness against a number of property developers. The lands in question were the subject of investigation by the Tribunal in 2003 and 2004. The inquiry published four interim reports, confirming corruption in the planning process, before its final report. The first Interim report lays out the work of the Tribunal for the coming years. It was published just after

1998-464: The media prior to its establishment and allegations subsequently made to the tribunal itself. The tribunal ran from November 1997 to March 2012 and was the longest running and most expensive public inquiry held in the Republic of Ireland, with costs forecast to reach between €250 million and €300 million. Public hearings concluded in September 2008, and following several delays due to legal challenges,

2052-767: The money was from his salary. Carruth had also broken down while making this admission, whereas she had previously backed up Ahern's testimony, provoking condemnation of Ahern for betraying her loyalty by forcing her to go through with her appearance. On 2 April, Ahern announced his intention to resign from the position of Taoiseach, effective 6 May 2008. Findings of corruption were made against 11 councillors, due to court proceedings only 6 were named Fianna Fáil's Pat Dunne (Deceased), Finbarr Hanrahan, Cyril Gallagher and G. V. Wright , Fine Gael's Tom Hand, Labour's John O'Halloran. George Redmond and Ray Burke have served prison sentences for tax evasion. Liam Lawlor has served three prison sentences for non-co-operation. The Tribunal had cost

2106-522: The national broadcaster, was biased against him and Fianna Fáil in its election coverage, and several RTÉ employees reported that while off-air at RTÉ's election coverage, he remarked "I'm going to fucking screw RTÉ". After the election he was appointed Minister for Justice, while retaining the Communications brief. Burke was responsible for controversial legislation that severely limited RTÉ's ability to collect advertising revenue, and allowed for

2160-408: The payments received by Burke amounted to corrupt payments. The Report also cited witnesses who obstructed and hindered its work over the prior five years. George Redmond was Assistant City and County Manager at Dublin Corporation in 1988. A planning application had been lodged with Dublin County Council on 1 October 1982 to build 206 houses at Forrest Road Swords . A 5-year Planning Permission

2214-461: The purchase of his house and foreign currency conversions became public during the lead up to the 2007 general election . The tribunal postponed sittings for the duration of the campaign. Ahern was re-elected Taoiseach and attended the tribunal for witness questioning in September and December 2007 and February 2008. During a heated exchange between Ahern and Judge Mahon on 22 February 2008, Ahern stated that his former partner, Celia Larkin, received

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2268-478: The rezoning of hundreds of acres in Loughlinstown and nearby Cabinteely was spearheaded by public relations consultant and sports broadcaster Bill O'Herlihy and later by PR consultant and former political secretary Frank Dunlop . Some councillors firmly resisted the rezoning, supposedly concerned about the commercial and social welfare of nearby Dún Laoghaire but are alleged to have ensured that there

2322-496: The separate Moriarty Tribunal to investigate payments to politicians Charles Haughey and Michael Lowry . The Tribunal has organised its investigations into discrete modules: In the course of its investigations, the tribunal has communicated with and cross-examined in public hundreds of witnesses. Among the most notable were: One of the leading witnesses in the early days was James Gogarty. Gogarty, born in Kells , County Meath

2376-445: The then Flood Tribunal began its work. 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. The third Interim Report of the Tribunal was published on 30 September 2002 by Mr Justice Fergus Flood. It deals mainly with

2430-602: The tribunal began preparing its final report. It published four interim reports, and the final report was published on 22 March 2012. On 2 April 2008, then- Taoiseach Bertie Ahern resigned due to continuing controversy over the payments. Loughlinstown was, prior to 1990 a scenic area directly south of Dublin city on the Wexford road , site of the first dual carriageway in Ireland. In 1991, an intensive IR£ 800,000 public relations (PR) campaign to generate local support for

2484-469: Was 98FM and in 2006 its owner, businessman Denis O'Brien won a record €750,000 damages from the Irish Daily Mirror which had claimed that O'Brien had paid a bribe of IR£30,000 to Burke to secure a licence for the station. In July 2004, Burke pleaded guilty to making false tax returns. The charges arose from his failure to declare for tax purposes the payments that he had received from

2538-486: Was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce . He supported George Colley in the Fianna Fáil leadership contest of 1979, but after Colley's opponent Charles Haughey won out, Haughey retained Burke in his government position. Burke was subsequently a staunch and vocal defender of Haughey during a number of internal heaves against the latter's leadership of the party. In October 1980, Burke

2592-546: Was approved. James Gogarty deposed on 12 October 1998 that Redmond had received payments from Mr Joseph Murphy. The Tribunal investigated these payments and concluded.: The finding of corruption by the Planning Tribunal was withdrawn in the High Court by the Tribunal on 19 December 2014 Following allegations that he had received payments from developer Owen O'Callaghan, the tribunal began an investigation of

2646-424: Was of advanced age at the start of the Tribunal. For this reason, the evidence from Gogarty was of concern, from the beginning, in case his health failed. Gogarty was a former Garda . He then trained as an Engineer, worked as a foreman, before being promoted as a long-term executive at construction company Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers (JMSE) who had responded to the 1995 reward offer stating that he had witnessed

2700-590: Was outspoken in his criticism of his employers, several politicians, and the entire planning process. The Irish Independent referred to Gogarty's courage, in calling him "the plucky pensioner". Gogarty received much support from the public gallery during his participation in the Tribunal. Gogarty died on 15 September 2005, aged 88. The Tribunal's inquiries between 1997 and 2002 comprised what were in effect three Public Inquiries, that covered topics as diverse as land rezoning, radio broadcasting and offshore trusts and corporations. The Tribunal reported in September 2002 that

2754-429: Was promoted to Minister for the Environment , a position he held until June 1981 and again in the short-lived Fianna Fáil government of 1982. After Fianna Fáil returned to power at the 1987 general election , Burke served as Minister for Energy, where he made controversial changes to the legislation governing oil and gas exploration. In 1988, he was appointed Minister for Industry, Commerce and Communications. Following

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2808-679: Was published on 22 March 2012. The Irish Government then referred the 3,270-page report to the Garda Commissioner, the director of public prosecutions, the revenue commissioners and to the Standards in Public Office Commission. On corruption in public life, Judge Mahon stated in the report that: "It continued because nobody was prepared to do enough to stop it. This is perhaps inevitable when corruption ceases to become an isolated event and becomes so entrenched that it

2862-544: Was stepping aside from her party, while it carries out its own internal inquiries into the tribunal's findings. Public inquiry Typical events for a public inquiry are those that cause multiple deaths, such as public transport crashes or mass murders . In addition, in the UK, the Planning Inspectorate , an agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government , routinely holds public inquiries into

2916-568: Was sufficient support from colleagues whose political bases were elsewhere. The rezoning was approved. Fianna Fáil politician Liam Lawlor was presented at a public meeting concerning nearby Cherrywood as his party's "planning expert". There had long been speculation about the extent of corruption underlying these planning decisions, and there had been several Gardaí inquiries in the 1980s and 1990s but these failed to uncover evidence. Michael Smith, later to become chairman of environmental body An Taisce and barrister Colm Mac Eochaidh , later

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