The former Taoiseach and leader of fine Gael, John Bruton, has been telling the Moriarty Tribunal of his involvement in the so-called "Telenor" donation to the party in 1995. Mr Bruton said that the Fine Gael fundraiser David Austin told him in February 1996 that there was money available for the party from Esat Digifone interests. He said that he told Mr Austin that he had an overriding concern that there be no donation from that quarter.
When David Austin told him that the money was there in a bank account, Mr Bruton said that he replied "leave it where it is". He said that what he meant by that was leave it with the donor; he assumed the money was still under the control of the donor. Mr Bruton said that Mr Austin may have told him that the money was in an offshore account of his, he could not be sure that he had not. However, he is adamant that he was certain at the time that the potential donation was still under the control of the people giving it.
Mr Bruton said that this was the first time that he had ever turned down a political donation. He said that, after that conversation with Mr Austin, he assumed that the projected donation had been dropped because of his objections. However, David Austin passed it on to the party anyway, disguised as a personal donation. When the then party leader discovered this in 1998, he said that he told the party's secretary to give it back. Mr Bruton said that he was upset and he felt that there had been a sleight of hand. John Bruton spent just over an hour in the stand today.
Earlier, Tribunal lawyers asked the Fine Gael General Secretary why the party did not contact Michael Lowry when it was making inquiries into a controversial Telenor payment. Jim Miley replied that the party felt that, as Mr Lowry was one of the prime witnesses in the Tribunal, it would not have been appropriate to approach him on the issue.
The Tribunal has been hearing details of how Fine Gael reacted to approaches from the Norwegian company, Telenor, in 1998. The contact related to the controversial $50,000 payment made to the party three years earlier. Jim Miley today told the Tribunal that the party had received a number of approaches from the company. Telenor was anxious to confirm that Mr Lowry was not involved in the payment. This would have brought it within the remit of the Tribunal.
Replying, Mr Miley said that the payment they received in 1997 from David Austin came 14 months after he had received it from Telenor, and therefore they had no idea what had happened to the money in the mean time. He said that at the time they received the payment, Mr Lowry was no longer involved in Fine Gael. Mr Miley said that they had assured Telenor of this.
Counsel for the Tribunal, Jerry Healy, then asked Mr Miley if the party had contacted Mr Lowry to see if he had any involvement with the payment, because he was chairman of the Fine Gael Trustees at the time of the initial payment. Mr Miley said that they had not done this because they felt it was not appropriate. He also pointed out that the $50,000 donation had not been solicited by the party, but had been solicited by David Austin without having the authority to do so.
