The former chief executive of Esat Digifone, Mr Barry Maloney, first asked questions about payments to Mr Michael Lowry when the terms of reference for the Moriarty tribunal were published, the tribunal heard yesterday.
Former Esat Digifone chairman Mr Denis O'Brien said Mr Maloney asked him after July or August, 1997, if he had made a payment to Mr Lowry, then telecommunications minister.
Mr O'Brien denied it but Mr Maloney asked him several times. He asked him again on October 8th, 1997, when preparations were being made to float Esat Telecom, which owned about 40 per cent of Esat Digifone. "I again told him: absolutely not," Mr O'Brien said.
The tribunal heard that the relationship between the two long-time friends soured after Mr Maloney became chief executive. People "associated with me, professional advisers, all got fired", Mr O'Brien said, and people seen as his friends "were sidelined and things became quite difficult". He and Mr Maloney had taken weekly runs in the Wicklow mountains and Mr O'Brien said he tried to keep the relationship going by continuing this activity. On a run on Sunday, November 17th, 1996, Mr O'Brien said he claimed he made two £100,000 payments.
He said he did this to encourage Mr Maloney to make overdue bonus payments to consultants who had worked on Esat Digifone's successful bid for the mobile phone licence.
"The psychology was that if he saw that I was suffering, then he might see fit to pay bonuses," Mr O'Brien said. It was a joke, and after 22 years, each man knew when the other was joking.
"He ultimately agreed to pay the people . . . so my run in the mountain worked."
Asked when he first clarified it was a joke, he said Mr Maloney would have known by the tone of his voice that he was not serious. Pressed on when he pointed out it was a joke, he said it was a year later, when he was responding to questions from solicitors McCann Fitzgerald, which was representing Esat Digifone.
Mr Maloney had had several opportunities to raise the matter in the meantime if he was concerned, Mr O'Brien said. He could have raised it eight weeks after the run, when Esat Telecom was involved in a public bond offering for $110 million and produced a prospectus.
Mr O'Brien denied there was any conflict in his evidence to the tribunal. Mr John Coughlan SC said Mr O'Brien had given a number of explanations for his remarks about payments of £200,000.
One version was that it was said in jest and bravado, while another was that he had briefly considered giving £100,000 to Mr Lowry. "Which one of those explanations do you now say is correct?" Mr Coughlan asked. Mr O'Brien said he stood by both statements.
