Mr Denis O'Brien had a "row" with an Esat Digifone board member when the board member said he would ask Fine Gael to confirm that it received £33,000 from Esat/Telenor, the tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr John Fortune, a Telenor representative on the board of Esat Digifone, said he clearly remembered telling Mr O'Brien that he would be seeking this clarification from Fine Gael.
He also told the tribunal he remembered "having a row with Denis O'Brien over the issue and I remember Michael Walsh [another board member] accepting that the route of the cheque left a lot of doubts in one's mind which could only be satisfied by contacting the recipient, which in this case was Fine Gael".
Mr O'Brien had told the tribunal that Telenor "did a solo run" in contacting Fine Gael and he had not been notified beforehand. He questioned Mr Fortune's recollection of events, given that he did not have any notes. However, yesterday Mr Fortune said Telenor's solicitors had taken detailed notes as the events unfolded.
Earlier, the former general secretary of Fine Gael, Mr Jim Miley, insisted his notes were accurate in recording that he was told Mr O'Brien wished to make a donation to the party "via Telenor in order to ensure confidentiality". Mr O'Brien had already denied that he made this request.
It also emerged yesterday that parties other than Esat Digifone who were bidding for the State's second mobile phone licence were "completely openly involved" with the organisation of a Fine Gael fundraising dinner in New York from July 1995, before the contract was awarded to Esat Digifone. It was in the context of this dinner that Esat/Telenor made a $50,000 donation to Fine Gael.