Statements given to the Moriarty tribunal by a Telenor representative and a former general secretary of Fine Gael were contradicted by the former Esat Digifone chairman, Mr Denis O'Brien, at the tribunal yesterday.
Mr John Fortune, a Telenor representative on the board of Esat Digifone, will tell the tribunal that in February 1998 he told Mr O'Brien that Telenor would seek direct confirmation from Fine Gael of receipt of a £33,000 donation. The donation had been paid by Telenor to a former Fine Gael fund-raiser, Mr David Austin, in 1995.
According to Mr Fortune's statement Mr O'Brien said Esat Digifone should seek the clarification because it paid the donation. Yesterday Mr O'Brien said he had no recollection of being told of Telenor's intention to seek such confirmation. "It's my recollection that Telenor did an absolute solo run with Fine Gael, in going to Fine Gael," he said.
"My overall sense of the statement is that there is an awful lot of detail with no notes. I don't know how someone could remember six years ago, a fax or a phone call." He said he first knew of the approach from Telenor "some time in February 1998, when I was contacted by Jim Miley [former Fine Gael general secretary], or else Telenor may have raised it at a meeting, after it happened."
Would he have had any objection to Telenor's approach to Fine Gael, had he known? Mr Coughlan asked. "Probably not," Mr O'Brien said. "Telenor were in the middle of a merger at the time with Telia, and I think that they wanted to get clarification on the donation before they went forward with their merger discussions."
Mr O'Brien also rejected a statement from Mr Miley that Mr O'Brien wished to make the donation via Telenor "to ensure confidentiality". Mr Miley said he had been advised of this by Mr David Austin.
"I disagree with that statement," Mr O'Brien said. "I would disagree with that whole sentence."
A letter from Telenor which set out the company's view of the donation in April 1998 was a matter of "bottom-covering" and "getting the file right", according to Mr O'Brien.
The letter, from Mr Arve Johansen, then chief executive of Telenor, to Mr Michael Walsh of IIU, an Esat Digifone shareholder, stated that the donation was solicited from Telenor. "This is a matter of getting the file right. I think there's a question of bottom-covering here, in relation to the Telia merger," Mr O'Brien said.
Also yesterday, Mr Coughlan said the tribunal had just received a large amount of new documents which referred to a large number of people, including Mr O'Brien. These people would have to be notified before the documents were made public, so the tribunal would not introduce them until tomorrow, he said.
