The solicitor to the IRTC has told the tribunal the first he knew of his appointment to the commission was when his father, Mr Pat O'Connor, told him.
Mr Michael O'Connor was nominated by an IRTC member acting on the request of the minister for communications, Mr Ray Burke, at its inaugural meeting in October 1988. Mr Burke chose him because he was a constituent in north Dublin.
Before his appointment, he never had any discussions with the minister regarding the IRTC or any aspect of broadcasting, Mr O'Connor told the tribunal. As solicitor to the commission, he never had occasion to discuss IRTC business with Mr Burke.
Asked whether he knew the IRTC member who nominated him, Mr Donal O'Sullivan, the witness said he never met Mr O'Sullivan in his life.
Mr Pat O'Connor was the principal of the firm in which he worked, John S. O'Connor. Mr O'Connor, who died in 1998, was cleared of charges of double voting in the 1982 general election. At the time, he was Mr Charles Haughey's election agent.
