Telenor man calls FG payment unusual

A senior Telenor executive told the Moriarty tribunal today the circumstances surrounding the payment of $50,000 to Fine Gael on behalf of Mr Denis O'Brien were "highly unusual".

Mr Denis O'Brien

The tribunal was hearing evidence from Mr Arve Johannson, who was chairman of the Norwegian state-owned Telenor Invest when Esat Digifone was awarded the second mobile licence in 1996.He said the payment to Fine Gael was intended to be a political donation from Mr O'Brien.

He said he had been asked by Mr O'Brien at a "private meeting" in December 1995 to make a donation of $50,000 to the party through Mr David Austin, who has since died.

The tribunal heard Mr O'Brien said this was to be a "good will gesture" and he could not make the payment himself because previous political donations "had caused such a fuss in the Irish media".

Mr Johannson refused as it was against Telenor policy as a Norwegian State-owned company to make political payments.

"As far as Telenor was concerned this was an Irish matter and Mr O'Brien was responsible for Esat Digifone affairs in Ireland," he said.

Mr Johannson told the tribunal he agreed at a second meeting to make the payment on behalf of Mr O'Brien in the form of a loan to be repaid withEsat Digifone funds when the company was "fully capitalised" later in 1996.

"We still felt that this was unusual but that if Denis O'Brien, the guarantor of Irish operations, felt it was right, we would not interfere with his decision."

He said he contacted the late Mr Austin, who asked him to pay him for "consultancy work." Mr Johannson said he thought Mr Austin was a "senior representative of Fine Gael".

Mr Austin said he would talk to senior party people like Mr John Bruton and Mr Michael Lowry about the payment and ensure it went into the Fine Gael account, Mr Johannson testified.

When he got an invoice for this consultancy work to be paid into an account in the Bank of Ireland in Jersey he became"concerned".

"If everything had beenclear from the outset I doubt that we [Telenor] would have made the payment," Mr Johannson said. "We were reluctant about it but we let it go."

At the time of the granting of the licence Esat Digifone was co-owned by Telenor, which held a 40 per cent stake, by Mr O'Brien, who also held 40 per cent, and by IIU, a company run by Mr Dermot Desmond, who controlled the remainder.