A practising barrister David is the son of Dick Burke, a FG TD in the 1970s. the sat on the Public Accounts Committee in 1971 that investigated how the money given to Charles Haughey in 1969 for the relief of distress in Northern Ireland had been spent, i.e. the source of the funds which was subsequently spent on arms in Hamburg. David has written about the Arms Crisis and related issues for Village Magazine.