The Moriarty tribunal was contacted by Mr Denis O'Brien within days of an RTE news report last May that revealed Mr Michael Lowry had obtained a loan of around £150,000 from a friend of Mr O'Brien's.
Mr O'Brien contacted the tribunal and advised it he had bought a holiday home from his friend, the late Fine Gael fundraiser, Mr David Austin, in 1996 for the same amount.
Questioned by counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, yesterday about why he made a connection between the RTE report and his house purchase, Mr O'Brien said it was because he had bought the house for £150,000, the amount of the loan which Mr Austin was reported to have given to Mr Lowry, the former communications minister.
"I was concerned that I had bought a house from Mr Austin and then some time later in the year he had given a loan to Mr Lowry," he said.
"First of all I never knew about the loan. I only knew about the house that I'd bought and I was concerned about it and that is why I raised the issue."
Mr Coughlan said that some time after 5 p.m. on May 3rd, 2001, the tribunal was contacted and informed there was the likelihood of a story running on the 6 p.m. RTE news that would make reference to Mr Lowry and a loan from Mr Austin, a former Jefferson Smurfit executive.
Counsel said the tribunal made contact with solicitors for RTE and informed them it was concerned about such a story being run. Delicate inquiries were being conducted by the tribunal and it was not anxious for any information to get into the public domain while the inquiries were continuing.
He said RTE did not run with the story at 6 p.m. but informed the tribunal it would run with it at 9 p.m. unless it was restrained by way of a High Court injunction.
RTE sent a copy of the transcript of the intended story to the tribunal to enable it to consider the legal implications. For practical reasons, the tribunal did not consider an injunction was feasible and the broadcast took place at 9 p.m. Mr O'Brien gave evidence that he contacted the tribunal after hearing this broadcast. He criticised the report.
"It was quite a libellous broadcast because it had newspaper pictures of me and Michael Lowry," he said.
"I wasn't particularly happy about it. I was actually concerned about it."
Mr O'Brien also claimed he could not say for definite how he came to know in 1996 that a refrigeration business owned by Mr Lowry was in financial difficulty.
He believed somebody could have told him or he may have read of the company's difficulties in the media.
In previous evidence, Mr O'Brien indicated he thought about giving Mr Lowry £100,000 when he learned about his difficulties, but later changed his mind.
Asked by Mr Coughlan if he had discussed the matter with Mr Lowry he replied: "Absolutely not". He said he definitely had not discussed it with Mr Austin, his accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, or Woodchester Bank.