Tribunal told of Telenor's FG cash concern

Thursday, 31 May 2001

A senior executive with the Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor has told the Moriarty tribunal that the company would have rejected a request for a donation to Fine Gael from Denis O'Brien if it had known all the details from the start.

Arve Johannson described the request for a donation of £33,000 from Mr O'Brien, the founder of Esat Telecom, as unusual.

He said Mr O'Brien had told him he wanted to avoid making the donation himself because previous donations had caused a fuss in the media in Ireland.

Mr Johannson said the Fine Gael fundraiser David Austin assured him that all the top people in Fine Gael - including John Bruton and Michael Lowry - would know about the donation.

Mr Johannson later told the tribunal that at a meeting of shareholder representatives in 1997, it was agreed a written confirmation would be sought from the Fine Gael fundraiser David Austin that the party received the money.

He said that when the letter was received, however, he was concerned it stated the donation came from his company rather than Esat Digifone as had been agreed.

Telenor then sought legal advice from solicitors who subsequently contacted the Fine Gael party directly in early 1998.

In a reply, Fine Gael told Telenor that it was the first the party had heard of the donation and if it had known of its circuitous nature they would not have accepted it. Fine Gael sent the money back and asked Telenor to keep the matter confidential.

Mr Johannson's company Telenor was a 40% shareholder in Esat Digifone which won Ireland's second mobile phone licence.