The controversial £33,000 donation to Fine Gael looks set to travel the same route it previously did as the political party attempts to return it once again.
A Fine Gael spokesman told The Irish Times that it was sent to Dublin-based solicitors for the Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor yesterday afternoon and accepted.
However, last night Mr Dag Vangsnes, executive vice-president of communications for Telenor Mobile Communications, said it would now be sent on to Esat Digifone as soon as its solicitors worked out the best way of doing it.
"We will endorse it to the rightful owners, Esat Digifone," he said. "On our books it was written down as a loan to Esat Digifone and it was paid back by Esat Digifone."
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport will decide today whether it will investigate the circumstances surrounding the granting of the mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone in 1995.
Mr Vangsnes said Telenor's solicitors had also contacted the Moriarty tribunal and offered their co-operation if it was necessary. "We have done so in the interests of the truth because our role is very simple and we have nothing to hide."
The chairman of the committee, Mr Sean Doherty, said yesterday the committee members would discuss whether to hold the investigation. It was requested by the Progressive Democrats following the revelation of the controversial $50,000 donation.
Fine Gael believed the donation was from Mr David Austin, a party fund-raiser, now deceased. Once it discovered this was not the case, it was decided to return the money. Fine Gael sent a cheque for that amount to Telenor. Since this company had already been reimbursed by Esat Digifone, it forwarded the money to Esat. Esat, in turn, returned it to Fine Gael.
Mr Doherty said yesterday the question of the donation was clearly a matter for the Moriarty tribunal.
"If the question of the donation or the granting of the licence were in some way or another to be linked clearly, an examination of that would be crossing the boundary which would lead us into tramelling or interfering with the work of the tribunal."
It could be said, he pointed out, that a distinction could be made between "a donation on the one hand and the granting of a licence on the other", however they may be connected.
"It would be premature to speculate on what route will be taken until the committee meets and examines the issues," Mr Doherty said on RTE radio.
In the Dail yesterday, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said he had no difficulty with the matter being referred to the committee.
Last night Fine Gael deputy Mr Alan Dukes, who took over as minister for transport, energy and communications from Mr Michael Lowry, said he went through the "whole process" in relation to the granting of the licence after his appointment and had been satisfied with it.
He said the two unsuccessful bidders had complained to the European Commission about allegations of unfairness but these did not stand up. "The same questions are coming back up again now and I have to conclude that it is because people are not getting the answers they would like to get."