Ex-Esat employee warned over leak

Moriarty tribunal: A Fine Gael activist and former employee of Esat Telecom told the tribunal that bidders for the 1995 mobile phone licence competition were turning up at so many Fine Gael fundraising lunches at the time, it came close to being "a farce".

The chairman warned the former employee Ms Sarah Carey that she could be charged with some of the tribunal's costs because she leaked information to a Sunday newspaper.

Ms Carey, daughter of Enfield, Co Meath, Fine Gael councillor Mr Bill Carey, told the tribunal that Esat Telecom and Mr Denis O'Brien made financial contributions to Fine Gael in 1995 because Fine Gael was the party in government. The payments were in part in connection with the mobile phone licence competition of that year.

Ms Carey gave information concerning political donations by Esat Telecom to Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats to a Sunday newspaper because she believed too much emphasis was being placed in the media on donations by Esat/Mr O'Brien to Fine Gael. She apologised for leaking the information, which had been provided to her by the tribunal as part of its private inquiries. She said her motivation had been political.

Mr Justice Moriarty told Ms Carey that 15 civil servants who worked for the tribunal had had to sign what were tantamount to sworn statements that they were not responsible for the leak. He said there had been "abrasive" correspondence with one of the government parties. Trying to source the leak had taken up two or three days of the tribunal's work. He might have to bear the issue in mind when making decisions in relation to the tribunal's costs.

Ms Carey said she had not been aware that her actions would cause so much difficulty and she was sorry. She said she had had no sense of the implications of making a leak and had no experience of such matters. When first asked about the matter by the tribunal, via her solicitor, she had denied making the leak. A few days later when she decided to change her answer, she discovered that her solicitor had already given her initial response to the tribunal.

Ms Carey told the tribunal that she started working for Esat Telecom in 1995, when she was 23-years-old and had recently completed third-level education. She said she had the role of marketing co-ordinator and reported to a number of people, including Mr O'Brien. She was an active member of Fine Gael and in regular contact with Fine Gael ministers. She informed Mr O'Brien of this a few weeks after taking up her new post.

She told him she had formed the impression that some senior Fine Gael members did not have a positive view of Mr O'Brien. She also said others were ignorant of him and his business. She recommended that he raise his profile and that of his business, within Fine Gael. This led directly to Mr O'Brien making a contribution towards a Fine Gael lunch in Carlow-Kilkenny, which Mr O'Brien attended and which was attended by the then Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, and Fine Gael ministers.

A contribution of £5,000 to Mr Phil Hogan of Fine Gael, during a Wicklow by-election, was made by way of bank draft. The draft was purchased by a cheque. The decision to make the payment in this way was taken by Mr O'Brien. This occurred in the context of an overall air of secrecy within Esat concerning its preparations for the Esat Digifone bid. Ms Carey said she felt at the time that the donation could be misrepresented by the media or other bidders, if they learned of it. Also Esat did not want its rivals to know the size of the contributions it was making.

"We wanted everything to be higher" than the other bidders, she said.

A Fine Gael golf classic held in October, 1995, was given £4,000. Although representatives of Esat Telecom attended, an instruction was given by Mr O'Brien that Esat's sponsorship would not be advertised or published during the event.

Ms Carey said she ensured this occurred as Mr O'Brien was "a very strict employer" and she wanted to ensure his instructions were not "disobeyed" in any way. She said that she attended about 10 Fine Gael lunches on behalf of Esat during 1995.