The former ESAT Digifone chairmanMr Denis O'Brien has agreed he earmarked £100,000 in a bank account in 1997 to pay the then Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications Mr Michael Lowry.
But he repeated his denial that any payment was actually made. He also said the amount of £200,000 he told the company's chief executive Mr Barry Maloney he had paid out was a joke. He stated that to his recollection Mr Michael Lowry's name was not mentioned in the conversation.
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Mr O'Brien was today answering questions put by Mr John Coughlan SC for the Moriarty tribunal at the resumption ofits inquiry today.
In evidence this afternoon Mr O'Brien questioned why Mr Maloney was raising the issue when Digifone was about to go public when he had not raised the matter during the two bond issues earlier that year.
Mr O'Brien said Mr Maloney did not want the company to go ahead with flotation.
Counsel for the tribunal asked Mr O'Brien if he felt Mr Maloney was "motivated by something other than his duty to the board." "Yes," Mr O'Brien replied after Mr Coughlan put the question to him a second time.
Mr Coughlan put it to Mr O'Brien that the matter of the payment, along with other issues relating to public inquiries over payments to politicians, was raised when it appeared in the red herring (draft) prospectus for the public offering and was not mentioned in the prospectuses for the two bond issues.
Mr O'Brien said he would prefer to consult the prospectuses but agreed this could be the case.
This morning, when repeatedly pressed by Mr Coughlan, Mr O'Brien agreedhe had considered making payment to Mr Lowry for more than the minute he had initially claimed but told the inquiry he could not remember how long he had thought about it.
He also said he was considering the payment to help Mr Lowry with his company. He thought the former minister was fair in his dealings with both ESAT and Eircom.
"I decided to help him out with his company by giving him £100,000. I earmarked £100,000 of deposits with Woodchester for that purpose," Mr O'Brien said, quoting from a written answer to questions from lawyers for and directors of the board of ESAT Digifone.
Mr O'Brien gave an account ofhis deteriorating relationship with MrMaloney - whom he has regarded as a friend for 22 years - saying when Mr Maloney was appointed chief executive Officer of ESAT Digifone a number of people had been sidelined or fired and he [Mr O'Brien] was concerned that a number of consultants had not been paid "success fees".
He said the fees were paid shortly after the conversation though Mr Maloney will, according to counsel for the tribunal, dispute the conversation took place while the pair were jogging in the Wicklow Mountains on October 8th1997.
Mr O'Brien said the matter was raised again during a meeting on October 13th between himself, Mr Maloney and another member of the ESAT Digifone board Mr Michael Walsh.
Mr O'Brien said he questioned why Mr Maloney was again raising the matter and wondered what agenda the CEO was operating.
Mr O'Brien said he was asking Mr Maloney to make the "success fees" payments during the run "as a last throw of the dice". "I had reached the end of the road. I was going to have to go around him, go to the board," Mr O'Brien said.
The tribunal continues tomorrow.