Esat boss `wanted to help out' friend in hard times

Mr Denis O'Brien had been thinking of making a payment to Mr Michael Lowry because the politician was going through a difficult time, according to documents received by the tribunal.

"Thank God I saw sense and did nothing about it," Mr O'Brien was recorded as saying in solicitors' memos seen by the Moriarty tribunal yesterday. "In October 1996 I had a couple of million pounds in cash from property and share deals (IFSC and sale of shares to US investors) and things were going very well for me."

He felt that Mr Lowry was under attack politically and in the media and his company was going through a difficult time. "I felt and still feel that Michael Lowry had always been above board and fair with Esat, both as regards the licence and our disputes with Telecom Eireann.

"I decided that I would help him out with his company by giving him £100,000. I earmarked £100,000 of deposits with Woodchester for that purpose. All of this was on my mind at the time of my conversation with Barry [Mr Maloney, then chief executive with Esat Digifone] on the mountainside. I pretended that I had already made the payment and I doubled for effect."

Explaining why he pretended that he had made payments of £200,000, Mr O'Brien said "anyone who knows me knows that I will laugh about anything. I just do not take myself, or life in general, very seriously." He then realised that the payment could be misconstrued and decided against making it.

The tribunal heard that solicitors for Esat did not appear to have been told about payments of £150,000 on Mr O'Brien's behalf which ended up in an account in Mr Lowry's name.

Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said it had uncovered evidence that Mr Aidan Phelan, a business associate of Mr O'Brien's, "appeared to have been involved in July of 1996 in arranging for two substantial transfers of £100,000 and £50,000 respectively on Mr O'Brien's behalf from offshore accounts in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

"These payments of £100,000 and £50,000 were made to David Austin [Fine Gael fundraiser] and appear . . . to be connected with a subsequent payment by Mr Austin to an account in the Isle of Man in the name of Mr Michael Lowry in the sum of £147,000," Mr Healy said.

Solicitors for Esat had examined Mr O'Brien's accounts from 1995 to 1997 for any records of the £100,000 or £50,000 payments and found none.

Mr O'Brien is due to give evidence today.