At the Flood Tribunal, a former director of Century Radio has claimed that the Independent Radio and Television Commission awarded the station a licence knowing that it was not willing to pay the required transmission fees. The former director, James Stafford, told the enquiry that the fees had been agreed between the then Minister, Ray Burke, and RTÉ. The Tribunal is continuing to question Mr Stafford about Century’s dealings with Mr Burke and RTÉ.
The Tribunal has now spent two days examining a figure of £375,000 which, according to Jim Stafford, was the maximum Century could afford to pay to have its signal transmitted by RTÉ. He claims that it was not just a figure that suited Century’s plan but had been arrived at by British consultants. RTÉ wanted much more, but instead of entering negotiation with the station, Century went to Ray Burke. Stafford claims that this was because RTÉ would not negotiate with them. The Minister agreed a figure of £692,000 with RTÉ and later got this reduced to £614,000, saying that he believed this to be reasonable. But when Century met the IRTC in January, Stafford said that he made it clear that he did not agree with the £614,000 figure. The following day Century was awarded the licence.
Mr Justice Flood said that this meant that the IRTC decided to grant the licence to people who, if the Minister’s decision was correct, could not make the grade. Mr Stafford Agreed. Mr Justice Flood said that this was interesting. The Tribunal heard that Century subsequently asked for a Ministerial directive fixing the fees at a lower figure and a directive was issued by the Minister. This is Mr Stafford’s fourth week in the witness box and his direct evidence is due to finish either today or tomorrow.
