Century Radio did not tell the Independent Radio and Television Commission of the charges both it and RTE had been proposing for the use of the national transmission network, Mr Pat Hanratty SC told the tribunal.
The IRTC received written and oral submissions from Century Radio for the broadcasting licence application in December 1988 and January 1989, respectively. During the submissions Century never informed the IRTC that RTE was proposing it pay £1.14 million, later reduced to £914,000. Mr Hanratty also said Century did not tell the IRTC it was willing to pay only £375,000.
The co-founder of Century, Mr James Stafford, said the IRTC did know about the level of charges they were willing to pay. "I am fairly certain that between the establishment of the commission and the submission on December 16th we had discussions with the IRTC on the level of charges . . . They knew at all stages how it was evolving and took an active interest in it," he said.
"If they did know they didn't know from your submission," Mr Hanratty said. "They must have been going around with it in their heads. The tribunal has not seen any documents in which this is recorded to the IRTC."
Mr Stafford said the accounts showed that Century could not have paid the transmission charges RTE was proposing. An independent radio station could never bear costs at £1.14 million.
Mr Hanratty said the problem was that Century would not have been viable over £375,000. "The figure was based on what Century could afford and not what the transmission charges should be."
Mr Hanratty, for the tribunal, asked if Century was not viable at the RTE figures why was £375,000 described as a "steal" at a meeting which included the directors of Century and the company solicitor, Mr Eugene Fanning. Mr Stafford replied: "Mr Fanning wrote the note, Mr Fanning will deal with it."