The former minister for communications, Mr Ray Burke, urged the IRTC to allow Century Radio to "grow into" its obligations to provide a specified minimum of news and Irish-language programming, the tribunal was told.
The secretary of the IRTC, Mr Sean Connolly, said the suggestion by Mr Burke was resisted, and Century was forced to meet its legal requirements from the day it began broadcasting in September 1989.
Mr Connolly described the commission's negotiations on a transmission contract with Century as "reasonably traumatic". They were by far the most difficult negotiations the IRTC had engaged in for any radio franchise, he added.
When the negotiations became protracted the minister had suggested easing the obligations on the station. However, the chairman of the IRTC, Mr Justice Henchy, had insisted that these could not be altered.
Mr Connolly said the first independent national radio station was a flagship project for the minister, who had a "more than fatherly" interest in it going ahead.
In December 1988 RTE revealed its proposed charges to the secretary and chairman of the IRTC.
According to the witness, this charge was priced "deliberately high" in order to frighten off licence applicants.
The commission decided to bring the matter to the attention of the minister. This was because Mr Burke had ultimate responsibility for RTE, Mr Connolly explained.
No applicants for any radio licence had been told they had won the franchise in advance of a formal decision, he said.
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