Mr Oliver Barry presented Gay Byrne with a bank draft for £1 million to work for Century Radio, the Flood tribunal has been told. However, Mr James Stafford said yesterday he did not know about the £1 million offer and that Century did not have this amount of money.
Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said around Christmas 1988 Mr Byrne was approached at his home by Mr Barry, a director, for Century Radio, and presented with a bank draft for £1 million. Mr Stafford, co-founder of Century, said he was aware there had been negotiations to involve Mr Byrne in Century but what he knew of the £1 million offer had come from press reports.
He said he had never seen the bank draft. "I don't know where the £1 million came from. Century didn't have it at the time," he said. "I thought it was a public relations exercise at the time."
He said Mr Byrne had been interested in working at Century but this had changed in late 1988. "I recall at the end of 1988 there was a last-ditch effort made to get Mr Byrne on board," he said.
Mr Stafford said Century would have found the money to employ Mr Byrne as he would have been an asset to the station. "If you can get Mr Byrne for any radio station it's a winner . . . There was certainly a consensus that Mr Byrne was worth this and he should be offered it," Mr Stafford said.
However, he said he was surprised to hear a £1 million bank draft had been offered to Mr Byrne. He said there had been a "significant jump" from negotiating with Mr Byrne to work at the station to "putting £1 million on the table". "It wouldn't be in my nature to put £1 million on the table without a contract."
Mr Stafford added that there had been negotiations with Mr Byrne for a three-year contract whereby he would do a two-hour programme similar to the one he had been doing on RTE Radio. There were also negotiations for his wife, Kathleen Watkins, to do a programme on Century with a salary of £50,000.
Mr Byrne is to be called to give evidence to the tribunal.