O'Brien donated to fundraisers for Fine Gael

DONATIONS:SIZABLE DONATIONS by businessman Denis O'Brien to Fine Gael fundraising events were underpinned by a desire for secrecy in relation to the amounts, according to the tribunal report.

The tribunal highlights the fact that the two donations, for £5,000 and £4,000, were made in a “non-transparent” manner by bank draft and within months of the mobile phone competition.

It also points out that Mr O’Brien’s company, Esat Digifone, prevented public display of its sponsorship of a golf fundraiser by hurriedly requesting the return of promotional material. This further underlined the company’s desire for secrecy, it says.

Mr O’Brien has told the inquiry that insofar as the payments were made confidentially, this was because Esat was in a bidding process, and did not want the donations to be misinterpreted in any way.

Following a change of government in December 1994, Mr O’Brien adopted a strategy of promoting himself with the main coalition partner, Fine Gael, the report says. As a first step, the late Fine Gael minister and consultant Jim Mitchell organised the first meeting between Mr Lowry and Mr O’Brien in early February 1995. This was just two months after Mr Lowry was appointed minister for communications.

The report says from that time, Mr O’Brien actively courted Fine Gael to increase his profile and that of his companies.

Before March 1995, Mr O’Brien had never donated to Fine Gael. However, in the 16 months from March 1995 to June 1996, he made contributions totalling £22,140 to the party. Well over half this was paid before the result of the mobile phone competition was announced in October 1995.

Other donations included £1,000 in March, 1995, for the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency fundraising lunch, and £2,000 in the same month for the Dublin Central constituency. The largest donation of £5,000 was made in June for the Wicklow by-election fundraising lunch. Phil Hogan, now Minister for the Environment, was director of elections for the party and Mr Lowry and Mr O’Brien attended the function. Another £1,000 was donated the same month for the Dublin West constituency lunch.

Some £4,000 in sponsorship was provided in October 1995 for the Fine Gael National Golf Classic, days before the announcement of the result of the mobile phone competition. Mr Hogan was chairman of the fundraising effort. The bank draft used to make the payment was bought with funds drawn from the joint account held by Mr O’Brien’s consortium to pay expenses connected with the mobile phone licence application.

Later that month, £200 was given for the Westmeath fundraising lunch and £600 for a similar function in Dublin South East.

The last donation was for £3,000 for the Fine Gael National Golf Classic in June 1996.