Telenor was concerned about a £33,000 donation to Fine Gael, the Moriarty Tribunal has heard. A senior executive with the Norwegian telecommunications company said 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. However, Arve Johannson said that when the letter was received 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 they had heard of the donation and if they 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.
The Tribunal was told that the money at the centre of the Telenor payment has over the past few months been shuttled back and forth between Fine Gael, Esat Digifone and the Norwegian company Telenor. Mr Johannson told the Tribunal that as of 14 May he believed the money was with Esat.
The Tribunal heard earlier that Denis O'Brien, the former Chairman of ESAT, requested Telenor to donate the £33,000 to Fine Gael. Telenor was a 40% shareholder in ESAT, which won Ireland's second mobile phone licence.
Mr Johannson told the Tribunal that Mr O'Brien came to see him on 8 December, 1996, with another man, Barry Maloney, two months after the license was awarded. After a meeting in which all three men were present, Mr O'Brien request a private meeting with Mr Johannson.
Mr O'Brien asked if Telenor would make a donation to Fine Gael as a "goodwill gesture". Mr O'Brien 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 that Telenor would not make a donation and there was no possibility that it ever would. Telenor was a 100% state-owned Norwegian company and had never been involved in giving political donations in Norway or elsewhere. It was after Mr O'Brien asked him a second time, and was refused, that Mr O'Brien decided that the donation would be made on behalf of ESAT.
Mr Johannson also gave the Tribunal hand-written notes he made during a phone call to David Austin to discuss the donation. He scribbled the names John Bruton, Denis O'Brien, Michael Lowry and David Austin on a piece of paper. He says that David Austin assured him that all the top people in Fine Gael would know about this donation, people like John Bruton and Michael Lowry.
The Tribunal is to focus its attention on the financial affairs of the former Fine Gael Minister, Michael Lowry, today. In a statement to local media in his North Tipperary constituency this week, Mr Lowry said that it was his intention to "vigorously defend" his conduct in relation to matters revealed at the Tribunal last week. The Tribunal will return to them today.
The Independent TD said: "In view of the outrageous misinformed commentary in respect of the granting of the second mobile licence I wish to reiterate in clear and unequivocal terms that the six applicants had equal opportunity". He said that an independent project team had carried out the assessment and that he "as Minister did not interfere with the process or influence the outcome in any way."
In what he termed "headline grabbing" reporting in some parts of the media the former minister said that he did not directly or indirectly receive any monies from Mr O'Brien. He admitted that a loan facility of £147,000 was made available to him by the late David Austin in respect of refurbishment works but that the sum was repaid in full with interest.
Deputy Lowry also admitted to two property deals, revealed last week at the Tribunal, that he was involved with in the late 1990s. He said that he had a 10% beneficial interest in a property development in Mansfield in England in 1998 but no longer had any interest in a property in Cheadle near Manchester, which he bought in 1999 "primarily through bank borrowings".
