Century Radio's "card was marked" by Mr Ray Burke, the minister for communications at the time, when the station's directors sought to have charges for use of the national transmission network set at £375,000, Mr James Stafford told the Flood tribunal yesterday.
Century directors Mr Stafford and Mr Oliver Barry had a meeting with Mr Burke in February 1989 after the licence had been granted to them and told him they wanted a directive stating the transmission charge would be £375,000, as the RTE charges were excessive. Mr Burke said there was nothing he could do, but he later contacted them to say they should ask the Independent Radio and Television Commission for a directive from him.
"The essence of it was that if you want this directive, then you must go to the IRTC and ask them to apply for that," Mr Stafford said.
Mr Justice Flood asked Mr Stafford who marked his cards as to solving the problem of getting the directive and he replied: "Our card was marked by the minister."
Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, had referred Mr Stafford to the minutes of a meeting in the offices Arthur Cox on February 14th 1989. It was attended by Mr Stafford, Mr Barry, Mr Terry Wogan, Mr Laurence Crowley, Mr John Mulhern, Ms Mary Finan, PR consultant, and two solicitors.
The minutes written by the solicitor, Mr Eugene Fanning, said: "The minister will give a directive at £375,000." Mr Hanratty asked why the minute had that note a month before the minister gave the directive.
Mr Hanratty said: "May I suggest to you that it is clear from that statement that you had reason to believe and so instructed Century's solicitor that the minister would in fact give a direction."
Mr Stafford replied: "I certainly hoped he would. I didn't necessarily believe he would." He said the meeting with the minister would have almost certainly have taken place before the February 14th meeting.
Mr Hanratty said that on the previous day he had told the tribunal that the minister said there was nothing he could do.
Mr Stafford said: "I think there are two separate meetings here that have to be dealt with. The first is when the minister is approached and told about the problem and his attitude basically is `there is nothing I can do' and then we're told that if the IRTC intervene then it is possible that the minister can deal with it on account of the IRTC."
Mr Stafford said the reason why the minister could not assist them at their initial meeting with him was because of a procedural problem.
Mr Hanratty asked what happened between him and the minister, between the meeting with the minister and the meeting in the solicitors.
Mr Stafford said: "Somewhere down the line the minister communicated that if the matter were brought to the IRTC and the IRTC brought it to him, he could then intervene." The advice to go to the IRTC came from the minister, he said. Mr Hanratty asked if the minister said if they did go to the IRTC he would give the directive. Mr Stafford replied: "I believed that on the basis of that representation, he would."
Was that the basis upon which Mr Stafford informed Mr Fanning on February 14th the minister "will give a directive of £375,000", Mr Hanratty asked. Mr Stafford said he would think so. Mr Hanratty said: "So the position therefore is that the minister for communications decided to issue a directive for £375,000 before he had received a formal application in accordance with the statutory requirements."
Mr Stafford said he could not say the minister did that. After the communication, they then went to the IRTC to ask them to deal with it. That was how the minute came to be written. At the end the minister gave a directive for £525,000.