Hogan says he has no recollection of O'Brien meeting

Moriarty TribunalThe Fine Gael TD, Mr Phil Hogan, has said he has no recollection of any meeting such as one described by the former party trustee, Mr Mark FitzGerald, at which Mr FitzGerald has said he met Mr Hogan, Mr Denis O'Brien and the late Mr Jim Mitchell.

Mr Hogan said that at the time the meeting was alleged to have taken place, October 1995, he had only met Mr O'Brien once before. He said he believed he would remember meeting Mr O'Brien in October 1995.

He said he "certainly wasn't in the habit of having coffee with Jim Mitchell".

Mr FitzGerald has given evidence of being asked to meet Mr O'Brien in Lloyd's Brasserie near Leinster House, Dublin, and being surprised when he arrived there to find Mr Hogan and Mr Mitchell in attendance. He has said that when he arrived he was asked by Mr O'Brien if he'd heard anything about the mobile phone licence competition, which was then nearing conclusion.

Before he died, the late Mr Jim Mitchell told his solicitor that he had no memory of any such meeting.

Mr Hogan told Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that he was a TD for Carlow-Kilkenny and had been first elected in 1989.

He said the meeting with Mr O'Brien and Mr Mitchell, as described by Mr FitzGerald, "did not take place" or if it did, he had no recollection "whatsoever" of it taking place.

Mr Hogan said Mr O'Brien or his company, Esat Telecom, contributed £1,000 to a fund-raiser in his constituency in March 1995. A table for 10 was taken out by the company but he did not think that Mr O'Brien attended.

In relation to a Fine Gael golf classic held in October 1995 in the K Club, Mr Hogan said he had no involvement in seeking a contribution from Mr O'Brien or his company, other than signing a letter to Mr O'Brien in his [Mr Hogan's\] capacity as chairman of the golf classic committee.

The first time he could recall meeting Mr O'Brien was in June 1995 in the Glenview Hotel, Co Wicklow, during a fund-raising lunch associated with a Wicklow by-election then taking place. Mr Hogan said he was the director of elections and involved in fund-raising.

He said he knew Ms Sarah Carey, who worked for Mr O'Brien. He did not know who initiated the contact but he did recall Ms Carey offering financial assistance from Mr O'Brien. Mr O'Brien attended the lunch and contributed £5,000, which he gave Mr Hogan during a brief conversation.

Mr Hogan said he could categorically state that he had never been involved in making representations on behalf of Mr O'Brien. He could similarly state that he had never discussed the issue of the mobile phone licence with Mr O'Brien. He said his only other contact with Mr O'Brien during this period was when they met for lunch in the Unicorn restaurant in the spring of 1996.

The men discussed a constituent of Mr Hogan's getting a position in Mr O'Brien's company, though in the event he believed the person did not get the job.

Mr Coughlan said that Mr Dan Egan, a former Fine Gael employee, had informed the tribunal he was now satisfied that Mr Hogan did not arrange a meeting between Mr O'Brien and Mr Enda Kenny in Leinster House in May 1995, as originally stated in Mr Egan's statement of intended evidence. Mr Hogan said that Mr Egan came from the same constituency as Mr Kenny and had been a former "high- ranking" official in the party. It had struck him as unlikely that he would have been involved in arranging any such meeting.

Mr Coughlan said the tribunal had been informed that the late Mr David Austin was the "driving force" behind the October 1995 golf classic.