September 29th, 1995 was a busy day for Denis O'Brien and some of the major figures involved in the Esat Digifone story.

O'Brien was worried that the absence of a firm commitment from the financial institutions to provide support for Communicorp's involvement in Digifone would undermine the bid.

He had been particularly worried after being quizzed about the issue during Digifone's oral presentation. The tribunal has been told that O'Brien may have been warned that the issue was a potentially fatal weakness in the bid. It is going to investigate if this happened.

O'Brien, as we have seen, had received a statement of support short of a commitment from Advent. It is important to remember that when dealing with the matter of finance, O'Brien was concentrating not only on his needs relating to the bid but also relating to Communicorp's overall development. In particular, he was thinking about a US flotation.

On September 21st, 1995, Owen O'Connell of William Fry solicitors was sent a fax by O'Brien which contained a draft of a letter "to be received" from Telenor.

The draft letter was addressed to O'Brien and informed him that the comfort letter from Advent was not satisfactory to Telenor. The letter, to be signed by Knut Haga of Telenor, asked O'Brien to take appropriate action immediately.

O'Brien, in a subsequent letter to Arve Johansen of Telenor, told him that a signed copy of this letter, dated September 15th, was given to him by Haga. The letter was to be the lever that O'Brien would use to ditch his other backers and bring Desmond on board.

On the same day he received the fax from O'Brien, O'Connell wrote back to O'Brien enclosing draft letters including the letter to be received from Telenor.

Another letter was to go to Kyran McLaughlin, the Dublin stockbroker who had rounded up the Irish financial institutions which had expressed interest in Digifone. The letter would be ditching them and O'Connell suggested an informal and friendly note from O'Brien should accompany the letter to McLaughlin.

The letters sent by O'Connell were to be used by O'Brien to clear the decks for Desmond to come on board. "I strongly urge that you should not issue the McLaughlin letter or obtain the Telenor letter until and unless you are absolutely confident" that Desmond is in on the deal, O'Connell said.

According to Arve Johansen of Telenor, O'Brien visited him in Oslo around this time and told him that "based on information from very important sources" it was necessary to strengthen the Irish profile of the bid and to "get on board Irish people who would take a much more active role in fighting for Digifone than the neutral banks".

Johansen said O'Brien told him Desmond's IIU Ltd was "the ideal choice" but the problem was that IIU wanted to have 25 per cent and not 20 per cent of Digifone.

On September 26th, O'Brien wrote to Massimo Prelz of Advent saying he was attaching a letter from Telenor "which is self-explanatory". The letter was the one which had travelled from O'Brien to O'Connell and back again. O'Brien told Prelz: "Regardless of Telenor's position, it is now clear that we will not be awarded the GSM licence with the existing financial arrangements."

The Telenor letter enclosed with O'Brien's letter had Haga's signature on it and was dated September 15th. Haga has told the tribunal in a statement that he accepted he signed the letter, that it was written to accommodate O'Brien in his dealings with Advent, and that he knew the letter would be copied to Advent. He could not remember who told him this.

On September 29th, 1995, Denis O'Brien met Michael Walsh of IIU Ltd in Walsh's office in the IFSC. They signed copies of two letters, one from IIU to O'Brien/Communicorp, and one from IIU to O'Brien/Digifone. The letters covered a number of matters but the key issues were that 25 per cent of Digifone would be "placed" with IIU and that IIU would underwrite Communicorp's commitment to Digifone.

On the same day, John Callaghan went to see McLaughlin in his office in Davy Stockbrokers. Callaghan told McLaughlin that Digifone had been told the financial element of its bid was not strong enough. He asked McLaughlin if the three Irish institutions - AIB, Investment Bank of Ireland and Standard Life Ireland - would step aside so an investor prepared to make a stronger commitment could come on board. McLaughlin duly did so and the institutions stood aside.

On the same day, September 29th, Walsh wrote to the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications to say that IIU was arranging underwriting on behalf of all of the equity in Digifone other than that to be subscribed for by Telenor. It put this, the amount to be underwritten, at "circa 60 per cent".

The official who received the letter, Fintan Towey, decided that because the closing date for submissions was passed, the letter from Walsh could not be accepted. He sent it back, to O'Brien.

It is probably lucky for O'Brien that he did. Because Digifone won the competition without the involvement of IIU being considered by the assessment committee, the issue of how IIU became involved in Digifone assumes less importance. Digifone won the licence without changing the initial bid it submitted, so even if it did get a "warning", that warning made no difference.