Ex-minister says donation not linked to Digifone licence

A former Government minister has said the $50,000 donation from Esat Digifone/Telenor to Fine Gael in late 1995 was not made "in return" for the mobile phone licence received by Digifone.

Mr Seán Barrett said that in his opinion the former Smurfit executive, the late Mr David Austin, who secured the donation for Fine Gael, was an honest man who, when he realised the sensitivities involved, held on to the money until he was able to forward it to the party under the guise of it being a personal donation to the party at the time of the 1997 general election.

Asked if the donation would have been considered a sensitive one, Mr Barrett responded: "We're having a tribunal about it." The tribunal has heard the donation was sent by Telenor to Mr Austin in connection with a fundraising lunch being organised in New York for late 1995 and after Mr Austin had sought a contribution from Mr Denis O'Brien.

Mr John Bruton, the then Taoiseach, said the party did not want money from Esat and Mr Austin kept it in an offshore account until he gave it to the party in 1997. Mr Barrett said Mr Austin would never have thought of keeping the money for himself.

He said Mr Austin had no ulterior motive for getting involved in fundraising, in his opinion. Mr Austin "particularly liked" Mr Bruton and when Mr Bruton became Taoiseach "he wanted to help".

In relation to the Telenor/Digifone donation, Mr Barrett said it was "a very sensitive issue" to get a donation from "someone who had received a contract from the Government".

As an honest man Mr Austin would have put the money away and waited for an opportunity to give it to Fine Gael. He subsequently used the 1997 general election though he was very ill at the time.

Mr Barrett agreed with Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, that this was an unorthodox way to treat a donation but "knowing the person that's the way I feel he dealt with it."

Mr Barrett said he was aware that a false invoice had been issued by Mr Austin to Telenor in return for the donation and agreed that was also not orthodox. He agreed with Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC, for Telenor, a lot of political parties were issuing false invoices at the time though he had not known this. "It would appear it wasn't the first time this was done, yes," Mr Barrett said.

The tribunal continues on Tuesday.