At one level it is hard to understand what the battalions of expensive lawyers assembled in Dublin Castle are so concerned about.
Everyone involved agrees that in December 1995 Telenor made a $50,000 payment to the late David Austin for transmission to Fine Gael, and that the money was eventually passed on. Everyone also agrees that Mr Denis O'Brien, the then chairman of Esat Digifone, was involved and that Telenor was subsequently reimbursed by Esat Digifone.
The payment was dealt with in a bizarre way because the Fine Gael Minister, Mr Michael Lowry, had announced the granting of a hugely lucrative licence to Esat Digifone just two months earlier. Mr O'Brien, according to the evidence, wanted to ensure the donation re mained confidential.
Everyone involved, to the exclusion perhaps of Telenor, which had a 40 per cent stake in Esat Digifone, has since treated the payment as if it was an unstable explosive likely to go off at any moment. This continues to be the case.
Yesterday, evidence was heard of Fine Gael's decision to return the money (for a second time) when the matter was publicly disclosed this year, and how Telenor and Esat Digifone both sought to have the other take it. Never has money been so unwelcome.
Mr Arve Johansen spent all day giving evidence. He outlined a scenario which painted Mr O'Brien as the instigator and organiser of the payment. Telenor, he said, had never given a political donation before in any jurisdiction and was relying on Mr O'Brien's judgment.
Mr O'Brien, in a statement in March, said he "categorically denies making or arranging a payment to Fine Gael in late 1995". He is to give his side of the story at a later date. He did not seek legal representation at yesterday's hearing.
According to Mr Johansen, the payment was agreed during a meeting between the two men in Oslo. Mr Johansen said he agreed to pay the money to Fine Gael on behalf of Esat Digifone. It later transpired the money was to be sent to an offshore account belonging to Mr Austin, a Fine Gael fundraiser. Telenor in return received an invoice from London from Mr Austin for "consultancy services".
The money was later reimbursed to Telenor by Esat Digifone, after Telenor invoiced the company for "consultancy services" provided by Telenor to Esat. Mr Johansen said if he had known at the outset the circuitous manner in which the payment was to be made, he would not have agreed to make it.
Mr Johansen has found a "post-it" on which he scribbled during a December 1995 telephone call to Mr Austin, before making the donation. The names John Bruton, Denis O'Brien and Michael Lowry appear on the note. Mr Johansen said he sought assurances that the party would receive the money and Mr Austin said top figures in the party would be told, and mentioned Mr Bruton and Mr Lowry.
Mr Lowry, a personal friend of Mr Austin, and at the time a senior figure in Fine Gael involved in fundraising, has said he was never told about the payment.
Following the establishment of the Moriarty tribunal in late 1997, the Norwegians decided to approach Fine Gael directly and ensure that it, rather than Mr Lowry, had received the money. Esat Digifone directors who represented Mr O'Brien and Mr Dermot Desmond's company, IIU, an Esat shareholder, objected. An IIU executive later wrote a letter threatening to sue Telenor if any damage resulted to Esat Digifone.
Mr Johansen said Telenor, in other jurisdictions, had been told payments to certain individuals would secure licences. Such payments had never been made, he said. He did not consider the Fine Gael payment to belong to this category.
Mr Johansen said he was never asked for money for Mr Lowry and that, as far as he knew, nothing untoward was done to secure the 1995 mobile phone licence. Nevertheless, the tribunal's inquiries into the matter are likely to run for weeks. Thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money will be spent in legal fees.