Irish crackdown on corruption snares former justice minister

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The Independent
By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent
25 January 2005


A former Irish justice minister was jailed for six months for tax evasion yesterday, becoming the latest casualty of an official crackdown on political and financial corruption.

Ray Burke, 61, who also served as Ireland's foreign minister, had pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to declare a total of Ir£116,000 in a single year, 1993.

As a senior figure in Fianna Fail, the party on which most of the Irish corruption allegations have centred, his lengthy political career was marked by persistent suspicions of financial wrongdoing. For years the belief was general in media and other circles that he had been "on the take" on a major scale, amassing considerable personal wealth in the culture of the surreptitious "brown envelope".

He was appointed to the cabinet by the current Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who said he checked out allegations made against Mr Burke and had satisfied himself they were groundless. Mr Ahern later said he felt saddened and betrayed by Mr Burke's behaviour.

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