Mr Denis O'Brien had suggested to Telenor that it make a payment to the late Mr David Austin for the Fine Gael party, and that this should be made "outside the country", according to a report of a meeting of directors of Esat Digifone.
When the Moriarty tribunal resumed yesterday Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, read out a record of a meeting of directors of Esat Digifone and their lawyers, which took place on November 4th, 1997. This was not a board meeting.
According to the record, Mr O'Brien, who participated by telephone, told fellow directors he had introduced Mr Austin to Mr Arve Johansen of Telenor. He had suggested the payment because the Fine Gael party was in financial difficulty and there was a fund-raising dinner planned in New York.
"I spoke to Arve," Mr O'Brien is reported as saying. "I asked whether he would be prepared to make a contribution paying per plate. He asked me how he would make the payment. It was agreed that Esat Digifone was to reimburse for this payment."
In response to a question from Mr Kevin O'Brien from Kilroys solicitors at the meeting, Mr O'Brien said the payment was to be made outside the country.
The report continued: "K. O'B questioned D. O'B and put it to him that Telenor was paying David Austin `on your behalf'. D. O'B replied: `I am not sure'." In response to questioning on the repayment by Esat Digifone, he said: "I would be outside the loop on that."
Mr Johansen also participated in the meeting by telephone, and said the payment was regarded as "a simple good thing to do. There were no promises. There was no concrete thing. There was no buying of services or favours.
"On Digifone, there was a good decision by the politicians and after the announcement of the award we were showing that we were very happy . . .Esat could not make the contribution. D. O'B told us, `Don't make it visible in Ireland'."
He told the meeting of discussing the contribution with Mr Austin, explaining he could not make the payment without an invoice. Mr Austin had said he would send him an invoice for a consultancy fee.
The meeting also discussed the conversation between Mr O'Brien and fellow director Mr Barry Maloney about a payment of £100,000 to Mr Michael Lowry, who was Fine Gael's minister for communications at the time of the allocation of the mobile phone licence. At this meeting Mr O'Brien stressed he had not made this payment, although he had thought about it.
Mr Michael Kealey of McCann Fitzgerald solicitors asked him why he had used a reference to "an intermediary" in relation to the money he had earmarked for this payment. Mr O'Brien said the money never left the bank. It was quite obvious who the intermediary was, that you used either a cheque book or the bank.
"In relation to M.K.'s point as to why he would not use the simple reference to a bank, D. O'B replied: `You don't always say the obvious thing'," the report stated.
Yesterday Mr O'Brien told the tribunal he had promised to buy Mr Austin shares in Esat when it floated, but forgot about it. He later bought him the shares at their increased value after the flotation, making up the difference himself. "I suffered financially," he said.
He explained that Mr Austin had asked for shares out of the "family and friends" allocation.
Mr Justice Moriarty asked: "You tried to put Mr Austin into the position he would have been in if you had bought the shares at the flotation?" Mr O'Brien replied: "I didn't have the heart to tell him `I never got you the allocation'. I decided to make it up and got him the shares. I suffered financially."