When Mr John Bruton said "leave it where it is" in reference to a £33,000 donation from Esat Digifone interests, he believed the money was in an account controlled by the donor, the former Taoiseach told the Moriarty tribunal yesterday.
Mr Bruton said he believed this because the fundraiser, Mr David Austin, was not a trustee or treasurer of Fine Gael and had no authority to accept substantial donations to the party.
He was "upset" to find that his instruction was later circumvented when Mr Austin passed on the money to Fine Gael as a personal donation. "I felt there had been something of a sleight of hand. My concern was simply with the possible misconstruction or misrepresentation of any such donation."
Mr Bruton said he felt the process in granting the State's second mobile-phone licence to Esat Digifone was "entirely immune from political influence of any kind". Nevertheless, following some press comment about a donation at the time of the Wicklow by-election, the party had to be "exceptionally careful in the receipt of such donations", he said.
The tribunal heard that Mr Austin told Mr Bruton about the Esat/Telenor donation in a telephone call on February 24th, 1996. Mr Austin said there was money available from "Esat Digifone interests" for Fine Gael. Mr Bruton said he told Mr Austin that Fine Gael should not accept that money so soon after the issue of the licence.
He did not believe Mr Austin mentioned the donation was in an account in Jersey. Even if he had, he didn't think that this would have had significance as Mr Austin lived abroad.
Mr Bruton said he regretted using the ambiguous phrase "leave it where it is" in connection with the donation, but said he had been anxious that he should not insult Mr Austin, or close off any future donations when they would be more acceptable. "In retrospect, I'm sure I could have found another phrase to use," he said.
He said he was surprised to be confronted with such a scenario. "And it was not a situation that I had found myself in before. I don't recall any other occasion in my time as party leader when I had to actually say to anybody that I didn't want a donation accepted at a particular time."
He also told the tribunal he did not believe the diaries of former Taoisigh should be made open to the public, to protect the privacy of former leaders.
