Mr Denis O'Brien contributed £22,400 to Fine Gael between January 1995 and June 1996 by way of attending or supporting a number of party fund-raising events, the tribunal heard.
During the period Telenor, the Norwegian company that formed part of the Esat Digifone consortium, contributed a further £33,000. This amount was eventually returned.
Mr Tom Curran, general secretary of Fine Gael, told Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, for Mr O'Brien, that it was generally true that after Fine Gael entered government in December 1994, a "substantial amount of money" that had not been forthcoming before came into the party, allowing it to clear its debts.
He told Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, that he had conducted an extensive inquiry into donations to the party by Mr O'Brien or his company, Esat Telecom. The contributions were listed: Carlow Kilkenny constituency, £1,000 in March 1995; Dublin West, £1,000 in June 1995; Dublin North Central, December 1995, £900; Dublin Central, March 1995, £2,000; Dublin Central, June 1996, £1,000; Dublin South East, October 1995, £600; Dublin South West, 1996, £1,000; Limerick East, 1996, £1,000; Meath, April 1995, £440; Meath, June 1996, £1,000; Westmeath, October 1995, £200.
Mr O'Brien contributed £4,000 to a golf classic held in the K Club in October 1995. He contributed £5,000 to a fund-raising lunch associated with the Wicklow by-election in June 1995. He or representatives of his company attended many of the lunches or dinners associated with the fund-raising events. Mr Curran said that, in relation to a fund-raising dinner in New York in November 1995, attended by the then Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, Telenor contributed $50,000 after Mr O'Brien said his company would not be supporting the event but that the Norwegians would.
The payment was made to the late Mr David Austin, who was involved in organising the event. He forwarded the money to Fine Gael in May 1997, by way of a personal cheque. The money was eventually returned by the party.
The tribunal was told that there was a fund-raising dinner in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, organised by Mr Michael Lowry in February 1996. Because the event was not organised by the Fine Gael head office, it did not have any records of the event. The tribunal has been unable to source records of who attended. Mr Curran said he could not say if Mr O'Brien contributed to the event. Of the £58,000 raised at the dinner, £18,000 had gone to Mr Lowry's Tipperary constituency and the rest, £40,000, to the party nationally.
Mr Curran said he had also been asked to disclose contributions associated with the losing consortiums from the 1995 mobile phone licence competition. No Fine Gael member of the Oireachtas during the period had received contributions from such sources. The tribunal was adjourned until a date to be announced.
