Bill McCamley also told the sub committee that leaks to a Sunday newspaper about CIÉ had a very detrimental effect on Mr McDonnell's health. Mr McCamley said that certain leaks to the media had been designed to humiliate and discredit the then chief executive Michael McDonnell, and it was awful to see the effect they had on his health.
Asked if he knew where the leaks had come from, he said that he had a letter sent from Mr McDonnell to a CIÉ consultant accusing him of leaking a document to a newspaper. Mr McCamley also said that the "dogs on the street" knew there had been tensions between Mr McDonnell and the Minister of Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke, and that his public transport policy had been diametrically opposed to hers.
In reply to a question from Chairman, Seán Doherty, Mr McCamley said that his knowledge of the tensions between the two had been based on hearsay and he said he had no documentary evidence to prove that Mrs O'Rourke and Mr McDonnell differed over mini CTC.
Also at today's hearing, CIÉ solicitor Michael Carroll said that in March 1999 he saw trouble down the tracks with the ESAT contract, and alerted Iarnród Éireann accordingly. He did not inform CIÉ senior management at that time and said that it was not his job to act as a spy for the parent company.
He said that he saw it as his job to renegotiate the contract with ESAT, and that he did not want to come between Dr Byrne, who was in the driving seat of the negotiations, and the chief executive, as intervention might have been seen as critical of Dr Byrne.
